Teen Titans: Two of Four Elements
by NeoNazo356
Summary: After Slade quit holding back, it seemed almost impossible... but somehow, the Teen Titans were able to defeat him. Emerging from their nemesis' shadow wholly for the first time, though Jump lay it ruins, they can now rebuild. However, it isn't only the city or their Tower they must rebuild, but also the friendships that had become strained to the breaking point.
1. Prologue: Final Aftershock

**Hello there faithful readers! This is NeoNazo356, greeting you on the 22** **nd** **of July, 2015, a year since** **Teen Titans: One of Four Elements** **came to an end, announcing that the Sequel is now up and running. By far my most-successful work to date, you've all been chomping at the bit, and now I deliver unto you, my faithful readers, the sequel you have been waiting a year for.**

* * *

 **Previously on** **Teen Titans: One of Four Elements** **…**

" _I don't want to die… *sniff* but this is probably what I deserve," Terra sobbed as tears continued to stream down her face. A moment later however, a hand landed on her shoulder, her eyes going wide when she thought that Slade had somehow crawled back up to exact revenge, only to go to the size of dinner plates as she realized- "Vent! What're you doing down here?"_

" _I won't leave you alone, not again," he said giving her a reassuring smile._

" _But Ven, what if-"_

" _Then I'll live, and die, with the consequences of my actions," he said as his eyes crinkled with his smile. "Terra, you may not know this, but I've done a lot of bad things in my life. I'll have a lot to answer for when my time comes, but one thing I won't answer for is leaving a friend alone to die."_

" _Ven… I'm scared," Terra sniffed as she wrapped her arms around his waist and buried her face into his chest, the light dying around them as the magma began to finish hardening, cut off from the boiling blood beneath it. "I know I did a lot of things wrong… but I don't want to die…"_

" _Then don't die," the brunette said reassuringly as he pat her back, making her look into his eyes. Well, eye. "Let's get out of this together, then go home. Alright?" he asked._

" _*Sniff* Alright…" Terra said with a soft smile on her face as the magma below finally cooled, and the darkness began to swallow them up. As the blond and brunette began to lose sight of one another to the darkness, a large piece of stone beginning to break away from the ceiling above them, the two slowly got to their feet. Holding hands as the darkness finally swallow them up, the piece of rubble the size of a semi finally broke away from the ceiling before descending towards them, the last vestiges of light beginning to disappear._

 _A moment later, there was a glimmer of gold and silver, and then…_

* * *

 **A few minutes after the team separated…**

"How could you just leave him?!" Raven shrieked, still held under Cyborg's arm as he Titans made a mad dash for the surface, the cavern collapsing around them.

"He'll die if we don't go back there and save him!" Beast Boy roared as he tried to escape. Cyborg's grip on him was too strong however, and he was unable to free himself.

"You think I don't know that?!" Robin demanded as he rounded on them. "He's my friend too, but if we don't escape, then none of this will have meant _anything_!"

"My friends…" Starfire said as she looked into Beast Boy and Raven's eyes. "I… I believe that friend Ventus will return to us. So let us ensure that there are friends to return to, yes?"

" . . . "

" . . . "

"C'mon guys, move it! This tunnel could collapse any second now!" Grey-Wing shouted as she continued to run up the spiraling cavern, the way behind them caving in as they ran.

* * *

Barely a minute later, and Robin, Starfire, Cyborg, Beast Boy, Raven, Grey-Wing, and Jadework all burst out of the tunnel as it collapsed behind them. The building their exit spilled into shaking, cracks spreading out across the floor, walls, and ceiling, the group of seven converged on a single point, throwing themselves into the open air as the building behind them collapsed.

"Is everyone alright?" Robin asked as he dusted himself off.

"I am without harm," Starfire said as she shook the dust out of her hair.

"We're alright," Cyborg said as he helped Beast Boy and Raven to their feet.

"Nothing's broken," Grey-Wing said shaking debris out of her hoodie.

"I'm fine," Jadework said shaking some debris out of his hair.

"Still… To think Slade's base was under _there_ of all places," Beast Boy said as he looked over his shoulder, the dust settling atop a large hill of debris.

"There's a certain irony in it," Raven hummed, the Pizza Corner's pepperoni-colored umbrellas situated atop the pile. "This is where our Team started out… and it might be where it ends as well…"

"Friend Raven, do not say things like that!" Starfire pleaded. "Our story does not end here! We will continue on! Keep moving forward!"

"Starfire…" Raven croaked tiredly as she sat atop a piece of rubble, bringing her knees up to her chest. "Do you remember the alternate future you were sent to? The one where we all grew apart?" she asked, the alien girl nodding her head. "The reason that happened to the other us, was because in that timeline you had died. It might've been someone else… but one of us still died… and we might still grow apart."

"You don't know that he's dead!" Beast Boy rounded on the mage. "He promised us he'd come back!"

"And how is he supposed to do that?!" Raven demanded, the shadow of her cowl hiding the tears spilling down her face. "Look around you! The shaking's stopped, but Vent won't be walking out of the debris. He's gone… we need to accept that…"

"No way," Cyborg said shaking his head, turning on his scanner as he began to walk around the intersection. "I've seen the guy fight, and we all know who he was trained by. The kid's tough-as-nails, he wouldn't let something like a little rubble stop him."

"You're lying to yourself," Jadework said with crossed arms. "The dead don't come back to life. That is an absolute."

"You do not know that!" Starfire shouted.

"Guys… You need to face facts," Grey-Wing sighed as she took a seat. "It's a miracle that _we_ made it out of there in one piece, but Ventus… he was smack-dab in the middle of it… I don't think he really in _tended_ to come back."

"Wait, are you saying he went down there to-"

"To die? Yes," Jadework answered Beast Boy's question. "Whatever wrong he did upon Terra, he obviously felt his life to be appropriate recompense."

"Shut up!" Beast Boy growled as he dragged the ninja down to eye level. "Vent's one of my best friends in the whole world, so I know he wouldn't throw his life away like that!"

 **Cue "Rise" by John Dreamer**

" . . . They managed to stop the eruption," Robin said as he turned over a stone with his foot. "Even if they _couldn't_ save themselves… everything will be able to go back to normal someday…"

"Hey man, don't tell me you think they're gone too," Cyborg said as he continued scanning.

"Cyborg, this isn't a fairy tale, a fanfiction, or a Saturday morning cartoon," the Boy Wonder sighed as he ran his fingers through his spiky locks, a couple of which had been cut on the end of Ravager's katana. "Everyone dies at some point. It's how they _live_ , and how they're _remembered_ , that matters in the end."

"Robin…" Starfire said placing her hand on his shoulder.

"Guys… I'm sorry," the spiky-haired teen sighed tiredly. "If we hadn't waited three days for an ambush, maybe… maybe we could've stopped all this… maybe-"

"There is no way you could have known that," Starfire said placing a hand on his shoulder.

"So that's it then? Not even five minutes, and you all assume he's _gone_?!" Beast Boy shouted.

"He was my friend too!" Robin shouted, the bottom of his mask misting up with unseen tears. "We didn't always get along, and half the time he drove me up the wall, but... he was still my friend. This isn't only hard on you."

" . . . "

" . . . "

" . . . "

"Goodbye… Vent-"

 _ ***GRUMBLE*GRUMBLE*GRUMBLE*GRUMBLE*GRUMBLE***_

"What's happening?" Grey-Wing cried as the ground began to shake once more.

"Cyborg! The volcano! Is it-"

"I don't know!" Cyborg shouted at Robin as he looked at his scanner, the ground at their feet shaking. "Something's moving down there, and it ain't the volcano!"

"Then what could it be?" Starfire questioned as she floated a couple inches off the ground.

"You don't think-"

 _ ***KROOM*WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH***_

A second later and the ground across the street from them suddenly exploded atop rays of golden light, a massive typhoon of wind spilling out of the gouge in the earth moments later. Sheets of concrete, asphalt, and plumbing spewed into the air, the gouge in the earth continuing to widen, and the wind intensify.

 _ ***Klop***_

 _ ***Klop***_

 _ ***Klop***_

 _ ***Klop***_

Then came the footsteps, slow, but steady, echoing through the quiet city air. Those on the street fell silent, the column of wind spilling out of the earth widening the crack in the ground into a massive, maw, a sphere of raging wind rising from the earth.

Through the dust and the fog, a figure slowly came into view. His features obscured, the rags of cloth that clung to his body rippled wildly in the wind. His gait was tired, more like a shuffle, but he held a hand forward defiantly, fingers splayed. Through the shadows, a pinprick of silver shone.

"Is that…" Starfire said in awe as her hands went to her mouth.

"It is!" Cyborg cheered, Raven and Grey-Wing looking up, the others stepping forward as the sphere of wind tore itself free from the earth.

"Vent! You're back!" Beast Boy cheered, throwing a fist into the air.

"You… you survived…" Raven gaped in shock as she rubbed her eyes.

Grins pulled at everyone's faces as the ribbons of wind began to peel away, revealing he who had risen from the grave. Cheers were about to erupt from their throats and fill the evening air, but it was not to be.

 _ ***Thud***_

"Vent!" everyone cried as he, and his passenger tucked under-arm, fell to the ground in an unmoving heap.

* * *

 **This chapter is a little on the short side, but that's just because what's to COME is more stand-alone-ish than just this little intro. This chapter itself goes on to confirm Terra's survival from the end of the previous story, a subject that many people have asked about. Of course, if you think things are just going to be that cut-and-dry, you've got another thing coming. The third and fourth seasons (which this story covers) will have noticeable changes to them, and I'm thinking about putting in some content from the comics.**

 **P.S.  
The new animation "Teen Titans Go!"… Yeah… I'm not touching that with a ten-foot pole. That means no plot points from the cartoon, or any zany hijinks. The reason for that is simple. In that spin-off, which I REFUSE to acknowledge as canon, all of the characters have become so misrepresented I don't even recognize them anymore. I only HAPPENED to catch a couple episodes while channel-surfing, wondering if it was any good, but seeing how "exaggerated" Terra's evil side was portrayed was a major turn-off for me. Terra didn't join Slade for the sake of it, she joined because she felt like she had no other choice (she felt that lack of control over her powers alienated her, and Beast Boy's supposed breach in trust) and Slade got inside her head (nothing short of brainwashing). Also, there's Raven and her My Little Pony expy, Robin's become a total control Freak, Beast Boy is dumber than usual, Starfire is even MORE naïve than should be physically possible, and Cyborg's anatomy completely undermines the tragedy he went through.**

 **Seriously, I get that with "marketing", they want to squeeze as much money out of an IP/Intellectual Property while it's still relevant, but there should be LIMITS on how far they'll make something fall.**

 **Anyway, here's to the start of another epic tale. I hope you'll all continue to follow me.**

 **P.S.S.  
On a similar note, for those of you that don't know, my most-recent stories are out. One of which had a "trailer" of sorts after the epilogue of the previous story. ****Young Justice: The Hunter** **is a much darker, more-realistic take on my portrayal of the DC universe tackling real-world issues and how they interact in a world of SPBs/Super-Powered Beings.** **Giant-Slayer** **is my attempt to add more realism to the mythos that Monty Oum left behind in RWBY, God bless his soul, my interpretation of how things operate behind the scenes in that kind of world.**

 **Anyway, I hope you'll give THOSE stories a read as well. And remember, Reviews are always appreciated, constructive criticism especially, though Flamers who hide behind Anonymity will be ignored. If you can't even bring yourself to leave a return-address, then you just aren't worth addressing in the first place.**


	2. After the Aftershock

When Ventus and Terra had fallen to the ground, Raven was the first to get to them, rolling the aerokinetic onto his back and checking his vitals, while Terra was left in the dirt where she lay. Robin, reasonably-paranoid as always, cuffed the blond's hands together after rolling her over, checking her vitals as well. While Terra was merely in a deep sleep, Ventus was far worse off. He was barely breathing, and his heartbeat was _far_ too slow to be healthy.

Quickly teleporting back to the Tower, both the Earth and Wind Titans were rushed to the infirmary. The two were covered in scrapes and bruises, which Raven, Starfire, and Grey-Wing disinfected and dressed, the two resembling Egyptian mummies by the time the final bandages were synched into place. Both teens were hooked up with IVs and breathing apparatuses, the difference being that Terra was strapped down to her bed at her ankles, waist, wrists, and neck.

As the two were being treated, Robin, Cyborg, Beast Boy, and Jadework were teleported back to the city in order to clean up the mess they'd made. Unfortunately, by the time they got there, Ternion was long gone. What _was_ fortunate, was that based on the three trails going in completely separate directions, Cinderblock, Overload, and Plasmus had managed to reconstitute themselves and go their separate ways while the Titans were underground. While the situation on that front was far from ideal, at the very least, it meant there wasn't an amalgamated mutant of Jump City's hardest hitters.

Robin's _first_ compulsion was to hunt them down and apprehend them, but with one Titan down, a terrakinetic under lock and key, and three of their own preoccupied with applying medical aid, the Teen Titans simply lacked the willpower necessary to hunt the three of them down without casualties on their own end. On top of all that, _none of them_ were in top form after dealing with Slade, and even if they _did_ catch up to the three of them, they might not even be able to DO anything.

With that in mind, Robin was able to establish contact with the Justice League, saying the situation had finally been dealt with, and it was safe for Jump's residents to return from the surrounding cities.

The first to return was the police force, who were easily able to get their precinct back. After that was the mayor, who did his best to draw Jump's residents back into town. He may've also been putting on a show so he could get re-elected next-voting-season, but at least he was _trying_ to help things get back to normal. The hospital staff returned, and little by little the people began to come back.

However, in the week following Slade's defeat, less than a fifth of the total populous had returned to Jump, meaning plenty of new and old gangs started carving out territory in what was essentially a modern-day ghost town. Having to supervise the reconstruction of infrastructure, the police were still stretched thin after their numbers took a hit from Slade's robots. Casualties were kept to a minimum, thankfully, though officers from the surrounding cities would need to come in to help get things up and running again.

As for the men and women still held in lockup, if it weren't for the automated feeding system, they might've all died of starvation during Slade's little pow-wow.

* * *

"Hard to believe it's been a full week since we beat Slade, huh guys?" Beast Boy asked on the seventh day as he looked out the infirmary window.

"Yeah. Looking out at Jump, it's almost like the whole thing never happened?" Cy said crossing his arms, taking in the same sight. The thick "fog of war" had long since left the city, and apart from the ruined buildings and streets, from a distance, Jump looked like it always did.

"But it _did_ happen. And we all have the scars to remember it by," Robin said putting a hand to his side. If he'd been any closer to that one slash, his guts would've spilled into his lap and that would've been the end of it. After the battle with Ravager, he also had to get his hair trimmed so the length of his spikes would match. Had he not heeded Ventus' advice and "fought to win", he wouldn't have come up as intact as he had.

"Well, _most_ of you anyway," Grey-Wing replied as she laced her fingers behind her head. After the final battle, her tour bus had just _barely_ been able to putter its way back onto the roof of Titans Tower, requiring a little help from Starfire so it wouldn't wind up in the bay. In the days that followed, after she and Cyborg whipped up some construction drones based on tech left behind by Gizmo during his first occupation, both the bus and the Tower received repairs in equal measure.

She and Jadework both had been extended invitations to join the Teen Titans, however, the two respectfully declined for their own reasons. Grey-Wing still wanted to see the world, that being the very reason she made a flying tour bus in the _first_ place, and she wouldn't be able to do that if she got tied down into the politics of city-bound heroes. Jadework did not _state_ his reasons, though Raven suspected it had to do with the power dwelling in his two arms.

The two agreed however, to stay until Ventus had recovered to a coherent state, since he was the one who helped them avoid Sladebot patrols, and coordinate their attacks and retreats to avoid capture.

"Friend Ventus looks so peaceful when he is sleeping," Starfire said from the aerokinetic's bedside, the teen long since pulled off of life support once he was stabilized. "This _is_ friend Ventus, _right_?" she questioned as she pointed to his hair.

"Yes, Starfire. His hair may've changed color, but that's definitely him," Raven sighed. While once said hair was a shade of brown like milk chocolate, since the final battle, his brunette tresses had long since become platinum blond. His now-white hair was almost invisible against the white pillowcase his lochs spilled across in a halo around his head.

"But then why has his hair become white?" she questioned. Why that hadn't come up until a week _later_ , none of them had a clue, though it may've had to do with helping to restore infrastructure. Once she got the hang of it, her laser eyes made for an excellent welding torch and really sped reconstruction along.

"The most-likely explanation is he overexerted his powers past the breaking point when he got himself and Terra out from underground after she made that crack for him to squeeze through, to the point that his body entrophied," Grey-Wing postulated.

"Oh! You mean like when Nagato's hair turned from red to white after he resurrected an entire village?" Beast Boy asked.

"A crude metaphor… but yes, in principle, the two are similar," Grey-Wing stated. "Historically, people's hair had turned white after harrowing ordeals, like the guy who had the Taj Mahal built after his wife died. Then again…" she hummed thoughtfully. "We could be witnessing the early manifestation of Damon-Hall Syndrome."

"Hey wait a minute, I thought we finished scrubbing the nanobots out of his system _days_ ago," Cyborg stated. It was fortunate they kept that old rig around from the _first_ time that happened, otherwise they'd have to start from scratch.

"Damon-Hall Syndrome is a _genetic_ disease," Grey-Wing clarified. "While the Meta-Gene is considered the universal cause for Superpower Manifestation in humans and human-like species, there are still things about it we do not know. What we _do_ know about Damon-Hall Syndrome, is that it's basically the manifestation of a secondary mutation in the subject's genome."

"Which in English means…" Beast Boy said trying to wrap his head around it.

"It _means_ , Ventus' change in hair color may be indicative of a genetic mutation that will result in the manifestation of a superpower either in line with, or completely different from, his preexisting Aerokinesis," the girl-genius explained. "Wind Dragon of the Ulti-Men, despite being a clone, underwent a form of Damon-Hall Syndrome when he manifested the ability to call forth chilling winds capable of freezing over hot magma. There are a number of other unconfirmed or unsubstantiated cases of this happening in the past."

"And you think Ventus might be one of them?" Robin asked.

"The possibility exists, though we won't know for certain until he wakes up," Grey-Wing stated.

"Yeah…" Cyborg said as he drummed his fingers across his forearm, before he walked over to the curtain separating the room. "Terra!" he shouted as he pulled the curtain aside.

"Gyah! What?" the blond shrieked at the sudden intrusion. The strips of cloth around her body had long-since been swapped out for _legitimate_ bandages, though apart from those, her armor pieces, and the hospital gown she was wearing, she was completely naked.

While she was no longer _as_ restrained as she was, her ankle was still cuffed to her bed. She'd woken up after the third day, but the Titans had kept her at arm's length, barely saying a word to her whenever they decided to drop off a tray of food for her. Since she wasn't allowed to leave the room and there wasn't a TV in the room, all she'd been able to do was watch Vent sleep, as he had been for the past week, and stew in her guilt.

" . . . "

"Uh… Cy… You're starting to scare me."

"Oh you _should_ be scared," Cyborg said, narrowing his human eye while his red optic glowed like something straight out of the Terminator. "After what you did to us, after you tried to _kill_ us, we should've dealt with you in kind and left you broken on that street corner. But Vent asked that we give you another chance, judge you fairly, and look where that got him."

"Robin… Beast Boy…?" Terra squeaked.

"This _was_ what we were going to do if Vent didn't ask for a stay of execution," Robin hummed as he turned away from her. The Justice League gave them complete freedom to handle internal affairs at their own discretion, and given Terra _was_ a member of the Teen Titans, it was free game. "You may have helped us in the end, but it doesn't change the fact that Ventus' condition is ultimately your fault."

"It kinda sucks, but I have to agree with him on this one," Beast Boy added. Having your crush try to kill you was a real eye-opener.

"Raven… Starfire…?" the blond squeaked as she tried again.

"I've got no problem with this," Raven said with crossed arms. Terra's betrayal had hit _her_ the hardest, since she saw it coming, but didn't act upon it until it was too late.

"Hmmm…" Starfire hummed deep in thought, trying to balance between the sanctity of life, and her desire for vengeance. On the one hand, she wanted to forgive Terra so everything could go back to being sunshine and rainbows. On the other, she believed in those who did wrong getting their comeupance.

"Rogue ninja have been dealt with this way for centuries," Jadework said plainly as he lit a couple incense sticks and placed them on the nightstand beside Ventus' bed. Just a little something to guide him back to the world of the living.

" . . . So this is really happening, isn't it…" Terra said as she felt her sins weighing down on her. " . . . I guess the heads-up is more than I deserve."

"Any final requests?" Raven asked. There was a voice in her head telling her to record this for posterity, but she quickly culled that line of thought. If she gave into her rage so close to medical equipment hooked up to Ventus, the shock could wind up killing him.

"If Vent ever wakes up, tell him… that I'm sorry," the blond sighed as she undid some of the bandages around her waist before making a blindfold for herself.

' _I wonder why they're doing this in here instead of outside,'_ Grey-Wing thought as she looked the other way.

Rays of light shining from the end of Cy's sonic cannon, as the turbines whirred to life, Terra braced herself for what was to come. However, before the cannon could fire, a crimson-colored spark suddenly leaped in front of the blond, before diving headlong into the barrel of Cyborg's arm cannon. Not a moment later and a fierce explosion took out the forward half of Cyborg's forearm, staggering him backwards while the other Titans yelped in surprise.

"Are we under attack?!" Robin yelped as he whipped out his staff. "Status report! STATUS REPORT!" he yelped as he whirled around, accidentally cracking Beast Boy upside the head with a loud **_*KRAK*_** and dropping him to the floor. "Uh… Whoops?"

"Guess _someone_ is still a little paranoid," Grey-Wing spoke up.

"Ooooogh... Who _did_ that?" Beast Boy asked as everyone looked around for the intruder.

"My money would be on the guy holding the incense sticks," Jadework said matter-of-factly.

"Incense sticks? I don't remember any-"

"Friend Ventus, you are awake!" Starfire squealed in glee, the others' attention turning to the only other bed in the room. Ventus' crimson-colored eye was cracked open, his right hand grasping the incense sticks on the nightstand, ribbons of wind swirling around the smoldering tips.

"Do not…" Ventus spoke in a raspy voice that hadn't been used in a week. "Touch…" he growled as a ribbon of light fluttered out the corner of his eye. "My… FRIEND!" he suddenly growled as his pupils dilated and his teeth gnashed.

Ribbons of wind swirling around the end of the incense stick, the smoldering flame at their tips suddenly grew into an inferno resembling a Salamandra, which flew through the air before slamming into Cyborg's chest. Staggering backwards, the cyborg got his bearings back just as Ventus threw his legs over the left side of his bed, swinging the incense sticks and sending out another spark. This one zipped through the air before exploding point-blank at his chest, knocking him out the infirmary window. Before he could cry out, he was pelted with another explosion, then another, then _another_ , each one knocking him further away from the Tower before he fell into the water below.

"I think not taking this outside was a _baaad_ idea," Grey-Wing said in reference to the would-be execution once the loud _***SPLASH***_ of Cyborg's mechanical frame hitting the water met her ears. Slowly backing out of the room, once she had cleared the threshold, she bolted as though her life depended on it, which it sorta did. Jadework was quick to leap up into the sub-ceiling and vanish entirely, leaving Robin, Beast Boy, Raven, and Starfire in the company of their friend.

"Ventus… I know this looks bad, but I can assure you, we have a very good reason for-"

Robin was about to say more, but the former-brunette whipped out his arm, the sparks flying from the ends of his incense sticks engorging themselves on the air pumped into them and transforming into full-blown plumes of fire. Robin threw his fire-retardant cape over himself, Starfire flew backwards out of the room, Raven vanished via portal, and Beast Boy scampered away as a rat.

"Dude, run for your lives!" Beast Boy cried out as the brunette's feet touched the floor and he began making his way towards them. However, before he could get the first step off, his legs buckled underneath him and he landed flat on his face.

" . . . Well _that_ was anticlimactic," Raven said poking her head in through the portal she left in.

* * *

As it turned out, Ventus' legs had fallen asleep during the week-long coma, on top of some slight atrophying to his muscles. Of course, as Robin also learned, just because Ventus was down, didn't mean he was out. As evidenced by the singes now in his hair and costume.

"Seriously, I'm not even out of it for, like, five minutes, and you're already trying to go all capital-punishment on my friend," Ventus glowered at the rest of the Titans from his wheelchair, sitting across from them in the living room and drumming his fingers on the table. Terra of course was still chained to the bed, and wouldn't be going anywhere for a while.

"Were you not in the coma for half a fortnight?" Starfire asked.

"It's called hyperbole," Ventus said flatly. "Anyway, you've done some really stupid shit in the past, but this one takes the cake. Robin."

" _Me_? It was _Cyborg's_ idea!" the Boy Wonder argued.

"I think he's still in the bay, by the way," Grey-Wing noted.

"Guilt by association," the ex-brunette replied as he drummed his fingers on the table, louder and more-angrily with his fingernails. "Now, does anyone want to tell me why _I_ had to save Terra's life, when I _explicitly_ arranged for her stay of execution?" he said narrowing his eyes at the gathered Titans. "If I had woken up a moment later, you'd have been cleaning a big grease stain off the wall."

"Look, we've all been under a lot of pressure, and things just came to a head for a moment, that's all," Robin argued.

"A moment _later_ and Terra would've been _dead_ ," the ex-brunette snapped. "Don't overstep your bounds on this! I might be in a wheelchair, but I can _still_ kick your ass!"

"Oh yeah? Prove it!" Robin challenged.

He would learn to regret those words.

* * *

"So…" Cyborg grumbled as he trudged back into the living room, seawater and kelp sliding off of his frame. "I had to fish _myself_ out of the harbor. Anyone wanna explain that?"

"Sorry about that. The others were a little preoccupied," Grey-Wing stated, a half-eaten bucket of popcorn in her hands.

"With what?" the cyborg asked.

"Getting an ass-kicking from a white-haired wind-wielder in a wheelchair," she answered, directing Cyborg's attention to the middle of the living room. Right there in the center were Robin, Beast Boy, Raven, and Starfire piled on top of one another bottom to top. Situated _on_ the top was Ventus in a wheelchair, lazily drumming his fingers on his right armrest.

"So class, what have we learned?" the ex-brunette asked in a condescending tone.

"Don't fuck with the wheelchair guy?" Beast Boy asked through the cracked rib.

"And?"

"Do not attempt to execute someone who has been stayed from their execution?" Starfire asked. She was hardly hurt at all.

"And?"

"Don't get into the middle of a fight when you don't have a dog in it," Raven answered. She was only slightly frazzled from trying to get into the middle of the fight and stop it.

"And?"

"Never underestimate your opponent… just because… they're in a wheelchair…" Robin groaned, the worst-off out of everyone.

"Beast Boy already covered that. Try again," the ex-brunette said before looking up. "Oh hey, Cyborg. You're just in time to get your complimentary _ass-kicking_ for trying to kill my friend. Act now, and that ass-kicking comes with its very own concussion," Ventus said as he wheeled his way off the pile, leaving tread marks across Robin's face as he made his way over to the cyborg. "Anything you want to say for yourself before we start."

"Vent, I'm sure you're angry, but-"

"Oh, nonononono. I'm not _angry_ , I'm _absolutely livid,_ " the ex-brunette finished with a crazed look in his eye.

"You know, you fight very well for a guy who woke up from a week-long coma not even half an hour ago," Grey-Wing stated.

"Thanks. I work out," the brunette replied before turning his attention back to Cyborg. "Now… About what you tried to do to my friend…" he said ominously as he slowly wheeled himself forward, ribbons of light spilling out of his eye. "Let's talk about that, shall we?" he asked as he whipped out a lighter.

* * *

 **Author's Note:  
First off, Cyborg trying to vaporize Terra execution-style is **_**totally**_ **in-line with what the Teen Titans were feeling in the final episode of Season 2; at least by my interpretation of their actions and motives in the canon.**

 **After they came back from however-long they decided to hide out, when they confronted Terra in the "fog of war", they were aiming to bring her** _ **down**_ **. They hit her harder, using hit-and-run tactics they'd never done before, but the biggest indicator of aiming for the kill-shot, in** _ **my**_ **mind, was how Beast Boy turned into a snarling, mangy-furred wolf and wouldn't even _talk_ to her. Terra had tried to **_**kill**_ **them, so in my interpretation, they wanted to return the favor. Ventus asked for a "stay of execution", but with his week-long comatose state, he unintentionally pushed the Titans into an emotional corner.**

 **Also, before anyone says- "There's no way a wheelchair guy can kick that kind of ass." -, let me remind you of two such characters who _can_ fight, despite being in a wheelchair. In DC Comics, Barbara Gordon after getting paralyzed by the Joker, learned how to fight from a sitting position. In Naruto the Ninja Ashikabi by** fairy tail dragon slayer **, Naruto has gone toe-to-toe with quite a few Sekirei, all from a sitting position. Though the second situation isn't canon, for a "skilled" individual, fighting off super-powered beings from a wheelchair is still feasible. However, I'm more heavily drawing upon Barbara's situation, since it's more in-line with what people CAN be capable of in the DC Universe.**

 **If you have comments about this thought process, feel free to leave a Review about it so we can discuss terms.**

 **Obviously, Anonymous Reviews will be ignore because there's no return address.**


	3. Dispensing Judgement

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!" Cyborg cried as he was suddenly jolted awake, completely freaking out and eyes going out in all directions.

"Whoa, easy there, cowboy. You've been through a lot, so don't try to move too soon," Grey-Wing said calming him down. Getting his bearings about him, Cyborg realized he was no longer in the living room, but was now in his own room, and currently he was laid out across the lab that served as the bed for his robotic frame.

"What… What happened? Last thing I remembered was being in the living room, Vent was wheeling his way toward me… and then everything gets blurry," Cyborg recounted, feeling a splitting headache go through the part of his brain that was still organic. Oh, and apparently the _in_ organic half was still in the process of rebooting.

"You got your skid plate kicked is what happened," she replied as she twirled an acetylene torch in her hand.

"What… Why can't I move my body?" Cyborg asked as he tried to sit up, only to find his body completely unresponsive. His pneumatics were whirring loudly, but nothing was moving the way it should.

"Turns out Ventus has an intimate knowledge of all of your cyborg frame's weak-points," the girl-genius answered. "All thirty-five of them to be precise. He started with number eleven," she said as she went to work under his left armpit before heating a very small area with the torch. "Oh, and by the way," she said as she pulled something free, a partially-warped fork with a bit of his side's metal wrapped around it. "You're out of silverware."

"Say what?!" Cyborg yelped as he looked down at himself, forks, knives, and even spoons systematically jammed through numerous points all across his body. Arcs of electricity leapt out of some of them, a bit of blood leaking out a few. "How did he know about them?"

"I asked him the same question. Something about _Freaky Friday_ or something?" she asked, wondering if she'd heard him right.

"Freaky Friday, what's he talking abo-" Cyborg asked before it dawned on him. "Well… shit. Guess that makes him the _last_ person I wanna get into a fight with, huh?"

"The silver suppository he shoved up your ass would be a pretty good indicator of that," she waved off-handedly as she got to work removing a knife shoved into his wrist joint; done so in a way that not only could he not use his hand, but neither could he bring out his sonic cannon.

"He shoved a _what_ up my _WHAT_?!" he yelped.

"Relax, I'm kidding," Grey-Wing joked. "And even though most of it's made of metal, it's surprisingly very nice," the girl admitted as she cut away a small square of metal, enabling her to pull the knife free and out of his joint. "Okay. Two down, thirty-three to go."

"Wait, you _just_ started?"

"Well, _yeah_. It took _ages_ to drag you out to your room, and don't even get me _started_ on lifting you onto this gurney," she answered.

"What about Starfire? It should _not_ have taken that long to get me here with her help."

"Apparently, Vent knows just what to do to distract her for an extended period. As soon as he finished with you, he asked Star to help him make something in the kitchen, since… you know, being in a wheelchair he can't reach everything by himself," she answered as she got to work on the metal surrounding the spoon jammed where his left floating rib would've been.

"Is he going to be in it for the rest of his life?"

"Oh _god_ no, it's only until the blood flows back into his legs. After that he's right as rain," she waved off as she pulled the spoon free. "Man, he did a real _number_ on you guys, and he hasn't even been up an hour yet."

"Though an appropriate response, you _did_ try to murder his comrade right in front of him," Jadework said off to the side as he crossed his arms. "I'd advise against that, otherwise he _might_ shove a silver spoon up your 'skid plate'," he said making the air-bunnies with his hands.

* * *

"Hey Terr, I brought lunch," Ventus said a while later as he and Starfire came into the infirmary, each carrying a tray with a bowl of steaming hot ramen and water on the rocks. "Sorry it's only instant ramen, but the food in the fridge is _way_ bad. Like, blue fur of _death_ bad."

"I abstained from screaming and reacting in abject terror," Starfire said in a chipper tone.

"You didn't have to do this for me. Hospital food would've been fine," Terra said dejected, even as Ventus placed her food on the tray in front of her.

"Nonsense. If you're going to get out of that bed anytime soon, you'll need to keep your strength up," the ex-brunette said with a wave of his hand. "Star, since we're finished here, you can go help the others move Cyborg now."

"But friend Ventus, would they not have finished moving Cyborg by now?" Starfire asked quizzically.

"Uhuhuhu. I know..." Ventus said with an evil chortle, the alien girl looking at him awkwardly before heading out. "Terra, we need to talk."

"About what?" the blond asked nervously.

"You know what I'm talking about," Ventus said with a flat tone. "You weren't _totally_ in your right mind when you did those things you did for Slade. But regardless of all that, you still need to face punishment."

"But Slade totally got inside my head!" Terra argued.

"Doesn't matter," Ventus said with a shake of his head. "Fact of the matter is, there are a good couple _thousand_ witnesses to what you did, and if we just let you off Scott free, the Titans will lose all their credibility. I can't promise anything _too_ lenient, but I'll do the best I can for you, because we're friends. Will you trust me at least that far?"

" . . . I'll always trust you," the blond returned after a moments silence. "I should've trusted you _before_ too."

"Yeah... That would've saved us a _lot_ of trouble," the ex-brunette said flippantly as he twirled his eating utensil around his fingers.

"I've been meaning to ask..." Terra asked nervously as she held up a large serving spoon. "Why are we using serving spoons for this?"

"Because I shoved all the silverware up Cyborg's titanium-alloy rectum," the ex-brunette replied plainly as he went about eating his ramen, the blond shuddering at how casually he said such a thing.

* * *

The next morning at the breakfast table, everyone sans Terra was in attendance, the group managing to pull together and gather some semblance of a _real_ breakfast together before the day's discussions began. After the major butt-kickings eschewed out the day prior, the only ones willing to sit next to Ventus were Grey-Wing and Jadework, the other five Titans squeezed onto the other side.

"Robin," the ex-brunette interrupted the spiky-haired teen as soon as he opened up his mouth. "Terra will _not_ be getting off Scott free, that we can both agree on. Beast Boy," he said waving a piece of bacon in the changeling's direction. "Potbellied pigs are opportunistic carnivores, same as lobsters, so turn into one and eat this bacon. You won't develop any muscle mass without protein in your system. Cyborg," he said turning to the guy sporting at least 35 welded alloy patches across his body. "Eat a dick," he said flippantly.

"Uh... Okay then..." Robin said dejectedly.

"Potbellied pigs are _what_ kind of carnivore?" the changeling asked nervously.

"Hrmmm..." Cyborg groaned at his harsh reception. Of course he _did_ try to kill the ex-brunette's friend, so...

"What is the matter, friend Robin?" Starfire asked the downtrodden teen.

"Well... I'd been practicing this big argument for _why_ Terra shouldn't get off Scott free... and Vent kinda pulled the rug out from under me," the Boy Wonder replied nervously.

"Seriously, _what_ was this you were saying about potbellied pigs?" the changeling repeated, his face turning a _different_ shade of green.

"Point is, Terra _will_ be punished, and hopefully we can salvage some degree of credibility when we try and get her back onto the team," the brunette said as he nibbled at his eggs.

"So... What do we do now?" Raven asked over her cup of tea.

"We enjoy our breakfast, talk the terms of Terra's punishment, and then bring her in here sometime around noon," Grey-Wing answered.

* * *

For the Titans who spent their day making repairs to the Tower by hand, it went by really quickly. For Terra, who spent her day handcuffed to a hospital bed, it dragged on _forever_. You could only count the number of ceiling tiles and windows out the _other_ window so many times until it started getting old. Since Ventus had woken up, she no longer had anyone to keep an eye on, and it was hard to sleep with inert armor components jabbing her in odd places.

"Terra," Raven said as she walked into the room.

"Raven," the blond returned.

"Hands behind your back," the mage ordered, the blond putting her hands behind her back, a **_*CLICK*_** of manacles latching around her forearms. Undoing the handcuff around her ankle, the mage then pushed Terra face-first into a wall, where she then proceeded to put a long-chained set of cuffs around her ankles; the chain short enough she couldn't get a full sprint out of them. "Move it, prisoner," she ordered as she jabbed the blond in the back with a rifle.

"Where did you even _get_ that thing?!" Terra yelped.

"I said move!" the mage ordered, jabbing Terra in the back again, the blond shuffling out of the room.

"You're enjoying this aren't you?" the blond asked with a deadpanned tone.

"Move, or I _will_ taze you."

"I'm moving, I'm moving," the blond grumbled.

"That's it, you asked for it!"

 ** _*BZAAAAAAP!*_**

"AIEEEEE!"

 _ ***Thud***_

* * *

"Yeesh, what happened to you?" Grey-Wing asked as Terra was escorted into the living room, her hair frazzled. At the base of the stairs from the main door there was a single stool, while Robin, Starfire, Beast Boy, Cyborg, Raven, and Ventus were sitting at a long table like a panel of judges at a parole hearing.

"I..."

 _'You fell down some stairs,'_ Raven telepathically ordered.

"I fell down some stairs," the blond replied.

"Hm... So you say," Robin hummed as he interlaced his fingers.

"Can we get this meeting started already?" Ventus asked. "The Tower isn't really wheelchair-accessible, and it is a _pain_ to get to my room from here."

"Yes, perhaps we should," Starfire requested.

"Alright. Let's get this meeting to discuss Terra's punishment started," Robin stated as he brought down a gavel with a loud **_*KRAK*_**. "Terra, do you want your offenses to be read out to you?" the spiky-haired teen asked, drawing out a very _large_ stack of papers and dropping it in front of him with a **_*Wham*_**.

"No thanks..." the blond replied, not really all that thrilled of being _reminded_ what it was she was in for.

"Very well then. Let's get this meeting underway," Robin said bringing down the gavel with another **_*KRAK*_**. "Terra. It goes without saying, that since your betrayal of the team, and your assisting of Slade in a hostile takeover of the city, that Jump's citizens consider you a liability to their continued safety."

"We managed to talk terms with the mayor," Cyborg said interlacing his fingers. "This is a one-time deal. You pull something like you did with Slade again, and it'll be open season."

"Because your name is on the Teen Titans roster, this still classifies as an internal affair, so we've been given discretion to handle things as we see fit," Beast Boy said in a rare moment of seriousness.

"What it all boils down to, is that you will _not_ be getting off Scott free. Do you understand that?" Ventus asked.

"I do," Terra answered.

"We have come to terms with an appropriate punishment, and subsequent probationary period," Starfire, now wearing a set of glasses atop the bridge of her nose, said quite intelligently. Maybe it was the glasses. Who knows when it comes to aliens. "Are you familiar with the TV series, Collar of White?"

"White Collar," Raven corrected.

"White Collar," Starfire reiterated.

"I've watched an episode or two. Why do you ask?" Terra questioned.

"In this situation, your current position is akin to that of Neal Caphrey's own; a criminal that's more-useful out-of-prison than in. You'll be allowed to remain on the Titans' roster, and time will be taken off your sentence and probation for each service rendered to the city," Robin stated, boiling down the complicated legal jargon to something the blond could understand. "That's where _this_ comes in," he said drawing out a pair of C-shaped metal arcs, colored black with electric blue inlaid electric highlights. "For an undisclosed duration, you will be required to wear _this_ at all times, all day every day."

"This tracking device, which was jointly-constructed by both Cyborg and Grey-Wing, will give us your exact coordinates accurate to five feet anywhere on the planet," Beast Boy explained. "In this instance, Ventus will act as your handler, assuming the role of Peter Burke to your Neal Caphrey. He'll be carrying a tracker on him at all times, giving him a live feed about your current location, biometrics, and other relevant data."

"If you break _any_ of the following rules, he will be the one to dote out your punishment," Raven said as she pulled out a piece of paper. "Rule One: You are not allowed to leave the Tower at any time without notifying your Handler, whom at that point will notify the rest of the Team to request approval by means of majority vote. Upon leaving, you will be required to remain within visual range of your Handler, the only exception being when you have to go to the bathroom, where a five-minute time limit will be instigated. Rule Two: You are not to go within ten feet of any and all security terminals within the Tower without prior authorization of your Handler and express permission from a majority vote. Rule Three: You are not to exceed the distance of one half mile, or two-thousand six-hundred forty feet, between yourself and your Handler at any given time unless under extenuating circumstances. Rule Four: You are at no time to attempt the removal of your tracking device until you have served the terms of your sentence and probation. Upon meeting those requirements, the Team, as a whole, will release six biometric locks holding the ankle bracelet in place."

"Any attempts at either removing the tracker, or breaking any of the prior-listed rules, will be interpreted as an escape attempt, and your status will be updated to that of a wanted criminal," Starfire said adjusting her glasses, the white glare of the lenses boring into the blond's soul.

"Upon capture, you will face trial for your crimes through the penal system, and given an appropriate punishment that may or may not be limited to the death penalty," Ventus read off from his own paper. "All other clauses in relation to this contract will be made known to you as they become relevant."

"If you do not agree to the terms of this contract and probationary period, from this juncture we will move straight to trial in the court of law," Robin stated, turning a piece of paper around, a pen sitting to the side. "Do you agree to the terms of this contract?"

"I do," the blond replied.

"Sign here," Robin said pointing to a spot on the paper. "Initials here. Date of birth here. Witness signatures will go here," Robin said taking back the last page of the contract, where the Titans proceeded to sign their own signatures on the paper. "The final piece of business to conclude this meeting, is you will need to take a seat and give us one of your ankles."

"I guess just take my left ankle," Terra said moving back to her seat, holding out her ankle. Cyborg passed Ventus the C-shaped shackle pieces, the ex-brunette walking over to her. Brushing some of the bandages out of the way, he held the two pieces around her ankle, arcs of electricity suddenly being exchanged between each end. Like two magnets, each piece was drawn together with a loud **_*CLANG*_** , the edges between each piece turning red before turning gray, no fault line visible between them. "Um... What just happened?"

"That shackle is made of a self-repairing Kevlar blend, totally waterproof. That thing ain't coming off until you've served your time," Grey-Wing answered.

"But what if I get an itch down there?" the blond asked.

"If that happens, use this," she said holding up a fork.

"Isn't that the fork I shoved up Cyborg's skidplate?" the ex-brunette asked.

"Hey wait a minute! You said he _didn't_ put anything up there!" Cyborg said putting his hands on said skidplate.

"Yeah... Kinda thought to take that one out _before_ you woke up," the girl genius admitted.

"Don't mess with a guy who's walked a mile in your feet," the ex-brunette said crossing his arms indignantly.

"Point is..." Robin said as he tried to un-see Ventus shoving a fork up his teammate's ass. "If you really _do_ intend to do good after what you did for us, this should only be a bump on the road."

"So..." the blond said shaking her left ankle, getting used to the additional weight. "What now?"

"Now... we do what we always do," Robin said as he got up from his seat, hopped over the couch, and turned on the TV. "We fight crime, one day at a time."

"And tomorrow, we get Slade's techno-crap off of your body," Grey-Wing added. "Don't worry, it won't hurt a bit."

"It'll hurt a whole lot," Jadework interjected, causing the blond to pale.

"Don't worry, Terr. I'll be by your side the whole time," Ventus said putting a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

"Thanks, Ven," Terra said as the other Titans went their separate ways. Cyborg and Beast Boy played their XBOX for the first time in days, Robin watching Discovery Channel on the splitscreen, Starfire digging through the fridge for something to make Glorg with, and Raven off to the side reading a book. Jadework was off meditating in the corner, while Grey-Wing wandered off to who-knows-where.

" . . . You look like you have something more to say," the ex-brunette stated.

" . . . What... What if Slade comes back someday?" the blond asked, the others in the room flinching at that statement.

"Slade? The guy who took a hot lava bath?" the ex-brunette asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah, I mean... How do we know it wasn't just another robot?" Terra asked.

"I sunk my teeth into him _numerous_ times," Beast Boy said as he hammered the buttons. "Trust me, he was the real deal."

" . . . " the blond didn't say anything, rubbing her arms nervously as she looked at every dark corner.

"Look, Terr. I've spent more time with Slade than everyone in this room put together. I get where you're coming from, the guy comes across as invincible. And even if he _does_ somehow manage to come back from this, rest assured, we'll stop him again," Ventus said squeezing her shoulder reassuringly. "What I'm _really_ worried about, is that crazy daughter of his. She fill _fuck_ yo couch!"

"I met her a couple times, but she isn't _that_ powerful, is she?" the blond asked.

"Terra. Her father can take on half the original Justice League simultaneously. If she's even _half_ as good as he is, we're going to be in trouble if we don't go into that fight full-tilt," the ex-brunette stated.

" . . . Alright. We'll do this together," the blond said cracking a real smile.

A moment later and her eyes flashed brilliant gold, her hair billowing outward in all directions as the Tower shook. The glowing and billowing ceasing a few seconds later, all eyes in the Tower turned to the blond.

"Um... Didn't she get her powers under control?" Robin asked.

"I think getting cut off from Slade's neural network hit some kind of Reset Button," Beast Boy cut in.

"What?! You mean I have to start all _over_ again?" Terra cried.

"Yes. But this time you'll be doing it for the right reasons. And I'll be right there with you the entire time," Ventus said putting an arm around her shoulder.

"Thank you... For everything," the blond sighed into her friend, a certain cloaked mage brooding off in the corner.


	4. Reconstruction

**Previously on** **Teen Titans: Two of Four Elements** **…**

 **" . . . You look like you have something more to say," the ex-brunette stated.**

 **" . . . What... What if Slade comes back someday?" the blond asked, the others in the room flinching at that statement.**

 **"Slade? The guy who took a hot lava bath?" the ex-brunette asked with a raised eyebrow.**

 **"Yeah, I mean... How do we know it wasn't just another robot?" Terra asked.**

 **"I sunk my teeth into him** _ **numerous**_ **times," Beast Boy said as he hammered the buttons. "Trust me, he was the real deal."**

 **" . . . " the blond didn't say anything, rubbing her arms nervously as she looked at every dark corner.**

 **"Look, Terr. I've spent more time with Slade than everyone in this room put together. I get where you're coming from, the guy comes across as invincible. And even if he** _ **does**_ **somehow manage to come back from this, rest assured, we'll stop him again," Ventus said squeezing her shoulder reassuringly. "What I'm** _ **really**_ **worried about, is that crazy daughter of his. She will** _ **fuck**_ **yo couch!"**

 **"I met her a couple times, but she isn't** _ **that**_ **powerful, is she?" the blond asked.**

 **"Terra. Her father can take on half the original Justice League simultaneously. If she's even** _ **half**_ **as good as he is, we're going to be in trouble if we don't go into that fight full-tilt," the ex-brunette stated.**

 **" . . . Alright. We'll do this together," the blond said cracking a real smile.**

 **A moment later and her eyes flashed brilliant gold, her hair billowing outward in all directions as the Tower shook. The glowing and billowing ceasing a few seconds later, all eyes in the Tower turned to the blond.**

 **"Um... Didn't she get her powers under control?" Robin asked.**

 _ ***TEEN TITANS***_

The following morning, everyone, Terra included, was sitting at the breakfast table. Terra sat to Ventus' right, Raven at his left, Beast Boy, Cyborg, Starfire, Robin, Jadework, and Grey-Wing sitting around in clockwise-order. There was a tense silence over the room, the only sounds made being that of silverware scraping plates and food being chewed.

"So… Addressing the… _elephant_ , in the room," Robin started off slowly, trying to word what he wanted to say carefully so he wouldn't drive Terra away. Again. "The removal of Slade's controller has negatively impacted Terra's rudimentary control over her geokinesis. Obviously, that needs addressing."

"No, what needs to be addressed _first_ is getting that dermal armor off of Terra's body!" Ventus argued slamming a hand on the table. "Her powers are secondary. Her health is first and foremost!"

"I already have something in the works, I just need to make some final adjustments, as well as take into account the high power draw of the _De-Skinner_ itself," Grey-Wing said between bites.

"D-D-De-Skinner?" Terra asked nervously.

"Don't worry, it won't hurt a bit," the genius replied.

"It'll hurt a whole lot," Jadework interjected.

"Dammit, Jade! You were supposed to _not_ say that part!" she shrieked at him before turning to the blond. "Look, you're going to have a good moral pillar at your side the whole time, so you'll be fine," she said motioning over to Ventus. "Just… try not to squeeze his hand too hard if that's what you're going to do. This… will probably hurt more than giving birth."

' _G-Giving birth…?'_ Terra thought, a flush overcoming her face as her thoughts spiraled off into a completely different tangent.

"So we'll finally be getting around to getting that armor off. That's good," Ventus replied.

"Yeah, but she'll be very _sensitive_ for a while," Grey-Wing said before waggling her eyebrows at him. "Just don't do anything _fun_ with her afterwards. Or you might drive the poor girl off the deep end."

At that statement, Terra started drooling a bit and fidgeting in her seat.

"Terra, is that a nosebleed?" Beast Boy asked.

"Sh-Sh-SHUT UP!" Terra shrieked as she slapped Beast Boy from across the table, sending him tumbling through the air before crashing into a wall.

 _ ***TEEN TITANS***_

Days passed by in the blink of an eye. As people began to return to the city in the distance, the western horizon brightening little by little in the darkness, Titans Tower was slowly but steadily reconstructed into the hope-bringing symbol it once was. It was fortunate that Cyborg had the foresight to store away the Gordanian salvage not used in the initial Tower's construction instead of selling it off to the highest bidder, because they merely needed Raven to teleport the massive amount of construction materials to the island so they could begin construction of Titans Tower 2.0 with little delay.

The interior of the tower, still largely a mess from Slade's run of the place, needed to be cleaned out first and foremost otherwise regardless of how reconstruction went, the teens' home would not be livable, nor would normalcy return. This is where Raven's ability to manipulate space-time came in, as her black hole-like portals made short work of any un-salvageable materials in the tower, sending it on a one-way trip to the nearest landfill, saving them countless man-hours in having to haul it off the old-fashioned way either with a barge or through the underground tunnel. Suffice it to say, it only took about a _day_ to clean out the interior, though the Sladebot "carcasses" were left where they were at Ventus' insistence.

When it came to the electronics, Robin's biggest focus was on getting the Tower back into crime-fighting condition. Thankfully with the surplus of alien tech they'd managed to hold onto, with a little tweaking to make it user-friendly, the new interfaces would prove to be far-better than any terrestrial tech of equivalent weight and size. It was also quite cathartic, because it kept his mind off of the wolf among the sheep, and prevented him from saying anything incredibly stupid and/or insensitive. It also alleviated the friction growing between himself and the normally-carefree Titan.

Beast Boy also showed incredible initiative by helping sweep the tower for any bugs or wire-taps Slade left behind. As it turned out, Beast Boy often sleep-walked through the Tower in various animal forms, and thus sub-consciously knew every corner of the Tower like the back of his hand. This _also_ gave him knowledge of any _unfamiliar_ smells that came from non-standard equipment. With the ability to turn into various rodentia, especially the common rat which could chew through concrete, even the most discretely-concealed leavings were made short work of.

The _major_ reconstruction however was left to both Cyborg and Starfire. Both possessed super-strength to degrees that the others simply did not, with supplementary powers like Starfire's eyebeams making welding metal together a snap, while Cyborg's auxiliary tools allowed him to do the work of an entire construction crew. Most of the patch-work was the same shade of yellow as the Gordanian dreadnought that they brought down the first time, but when it came to replacing the windows, the new blaster-resistant panes of space-worthy glass would increase the Tower's defensibility immensely. Obviously there wasn't enough of it to cover the _entire_ Tower, but between the two of them, they were able to quickly fabricate enough to suit their needs.

This left the current "outcasts" of the Teen Titans to mill about on their own devices.

As the earthquake a few days ago showed, Terra's now-current lack of control over her powers not only proved to be a major security risk, but it was also a major blow to the girl's pride, which desynchronized her powers from her control even further. While it was true that her powers needed addressing, every day she had to wake up with the same Dermal Armor grafted onto her body was another day she felt constricted and unable to look herself in the mirror. It got so bad that at one point, in a panic, she tried to _carve_ it all out. It was only when Ventus' blood splashed against her face when he tried to stop her, that the girl calmed down, instead focusing on the ex-brunette's wellbeing instead of her own.

Under normal circumstances, Cyborg and maybe even Robin would be the one to spearpoint the operation to remove Terra's Dermal Armor. However, with the super-genius that Ventus had been able to recruit, the matter was made marginally easier. While medical care for the Gordanian soldiers was practically non-existent, injured or dead troopers left to fall where they may, the captain's quarters had its own suite of medical equipment that was _literally_ out-of-this-world; a setup which Grey-Wing was quick to cannibalize on in order to make an apparatus that'd enable them to help remedy Terra's condition.

However, fancy equipment alone wouldn't be enough. Grey-Wing was a genius, but without a tangible idea of _what_ she was working with, any premature attempts at removing the Dermal Armor could cause long-term if not _permanent_ damage to the blond's body. As such, it was up to the four of them to scour Slade's now-defunct FOBs to scrounge up whatever info or research materials they could find. It also helped that with the man dead and his legion of robot soldiers largely inert, they felt no fear of reprisal for scavenging whatever wasn't, and _was_ bolted to the ground _(after said bolts had been removed)_ in their quest to find a _safe_ means of resolving Terra's current dilemma. Just because Slade had no _intention_ of letting Terra off her leash, didn't mean he'd leave such a glaring design flaw present in the event that medical treatment required a complete removal of said armor for the "upkeep" of his resource.

"Geez, I get that maybe the gears were meant to be some kind of _metaphor_ for every piece doing its job, but you'd think the guy would get a little _tired_ of all the steampunk after a while," Vent groaned as he and Grey-Wing salvaged raw material for later processing back at the Tower, Terra at his side while Jadework moved through the shadows.

"Maybe the gears had a double-purpose. With all the extra noise, it'd be hard for people to hear him sneaking up on them," the genius replied.

"But wouldn't that make it easier for _others_ to sneak up on him as well?" Terra asked as she hugged Ven's arm to herself; she wasn't so much afraid of the _dark_ as was she afraid of what might be _hiding_ in there. At the moment she was clad in a sky blue sweatsuit, mainly because it was loose-enough that she could pull it over her armor components. Even now, she didn't really understand _why_ Slade made her wear bandages; all _she_ could come up with is maybe to look like a Mummy which was considered a Monster, but even then that idea was pretty weak.

"Not really. Slade didn't get to where he was without being the best of the best. Batman can sneak up on _Superman_ , so if Slade could sneak up on _him_ , then you _know_ he's a master at his craft," the ex-brunette returned.

"It still feels weird… referring to him in the past tense like that," Terra said as she tugged at her chest armor, the only part that was flexible by any stretch of the imagination.

"Yes, well, unless there's some magical bullshit like Superman's _healing coma_ after his whole Doomsday episode, Slade will hopefully _stay_ dead," Vent returned as he plopped himself down on one of Slade's thrones, only for his face to twist into a grimace a few seconds later. "Jesus Christ, there isn't even an inch of _padding_ on this thing. How did the guy _stand_ these things?" he asked rising out of the uncomfortable throne.

"Hey guys, I think I found some kinda tech-lab up here!" Jadework called out. Grey-Wing was quick to ascend the inert gears with rocket-propelled boots, while Ventus scooped his antithesis into his arms before running along the air, rings of smoke in the wake of his footfalls.

Compared to the gritty clock-punk theme of the base's lower levels, what was up in the rafters couldn't be any more different. While the lower levels were dark and musty, the upper levels were painted a sterile shade of white, the group of four needing a minute for their eyes to adjust to the bright fluorescent artificial lighting. Overall, between the hydraulic space-age doors and the bland paneling, it looked like a mix of Fallout's vaults and Portal's testing grounds.

"I found a tech lab that looked like it was used to fabricate Dermal Armor down the hall here," Jadework said leading the genius. "There were a bunch computer banks in there, but I have no idea how to work those kind of things."

"That's good. If we can find _any_ kind of technical data, our job will become much easier," the genius replied.

"You hear that. We're almost in the home stretch," Ventus said putting a hand on the girl's shoulder.

"Yeah…"

"Is something on your mind?"

"This place… I think I've been here before," she said nervously as she brushed at the armor on her elbow. "Slade had me come to a whole bunch of these bases during training before… before things got out of hand."

"If you left something of yours here, we can go and get it. We've _literally_ got nothing better to do until Grey-Wing comes up with something."

"These places… They all look alike, so I might be thinking of somewhere different," Terra said nervously. "I wouldn't want to trouble you."

"Like I said, until Grey-Wing finds something, you and I are just spinning our wheels here," the ex-brunette reassured her. "Unless there's something _you'd_ like to do while we're here," he shrugged, an innocent smile on his face.

"Well…" Terra said nervously as her cheeks blushed a bright red. "I… can't think of anything else right now," she sighed, realizing that with the kind of person he was, there was _not_ any hidden context to his words. There was such a thing as "too soon", as much as she hated to admit it. _'It's almost impossible to imagine the days where we couldn't_ stand _each other,'_ she thought idly. "Ven… I know you're trying to be fair in all this, but it's alright if you hate me for what I did. I did a bad thing, and if I upset you, you shouldn't be afraid to show it. I was prepared for it as soon as I started following Slade's lead."

"Terr… Deep down some part of me _does_ hate you for what you did," the ex-brunette answered, causing the blond to wilt. "But more than that, I hate _myself_. I should've seen the signs. The signs that you needed a friend more than _I_ needed a place to call home. That despite the irony in it, you needed a rock to hold onto. I've been a terrible friend, so I'm just as much at fault as you are."

"No, you shouldn't think that!" the blond argued.

"It'll be up to the _next_ generation to decide who was right and who was wrong," the ex-brunette sighed as he sat against a wall, the blond sitting down beside him. "Grey-Wing, you find anything?" he asked into his T-Comm.

"Ooooooh yeah. Big-time," the genius replied. "It'll take a while to sift through all the technical data though, and that's not counting the encryption Slade put on all his data. Why don't the two of you take a walk or something, I'll call you when I'm finished back here."

"Well, you heard the lady. Let's go on a walk or something," Ventus said pushing himself to his feet, the blond following after him. The halls pretty much looked all the same, but a few notices for the _human_ staff kept them from getting lost. It was after the two had finished raiding the infirmary for some high-end medical supplies that they came upon a cafeteria-like space at the exact moment their stomachs started growling.

"Guess looting everything down to the floorboards Fallout-style is pretty hungry work," the now-white-haired teen chuckled.

"Yeah, you could say that again," the blond sighed.

"Well, it won't hurt our karma too much if we raid one more fridge, huh?" he asked walking over to a large stainless steel fridge and prying the door open. "Huh, I never took Slade for a health-nut," he said looking at all the food still in there. "Glad the power's still running, otherwise this would _not_ be appetizing," he said tossing pieces of fruit and cups of yogurt over to Terra.

"Yeah, well, I never would've known I was so malnourished until Slade had those tests run on me, so at least he was good for _that_ much," she shrugged as she idly ran her fingers up and down her sides. Feeling the curves of her chest, the dip of her waist, and the slight flaring of her hips, she smirked internally knowing that Starfire and Raven weren't the _only_ girls with hot bodies in the Tower now. Put her in the right outfit and even _Ventus'_ head would be turning her way.

"Yeah, I spent a couple years running one of his health plans, so I know what you mean," the ex-brunette shrugged. "Before Slade took me in, I was just as skinny as _you_ used to be, and much shorter to boot," he said pulling out a head of lettuce. "You up for a fruit salad?"

 _ ***Growrrrrrrrrr***_ "Sure, why not?" the blond asked as she began rummaging for cooking utensils. Grabbing the necessary stuff and putting it on the nearby counter, she looked over her shoulder before stopping. "I _thought_ I recognized this place!" she realized. "That's right where I was before Slade sent me after you guys," she said pointing to a table off to the side, a tray and some half-eaten food left to spoil, like the moment was frozen in time.

"Huh… You don't say…" Ventus hummed as he eyed the utensils, the gears in his head clicking together like the décor in the real world.

 _ ***TEEN TITANS***_

Ventus, Terra, Grey-Wing, and Jadework's raid of Slade's previous base had borne fruit both literally and metaphorically. In addition to the still-good produce that the group fed off of in the cafeteria, Grey-Wing was able to find a complete set of blueprints and technical specs for the Dermal Armor, as well as the hardware used to _apply_ it, all things that would go a long way to getting Terra's armor off, saving the genius weeks, maybe months of work trying to make her _own_ solution for it.

That was why, when they returned to the tower, the bulk of the original team watched from the hallway as the four of them set up a massive machine inside the infirmary that looked like something from Star Wars. The center of the machine dominating the back wall was a transparent tank filled with an unidentified amber fluid, a number of manipulator arms folded against the sides. To the left and right there were complicated banks of computers and keyboards, as well as a few holographic interfaces. However, most-prevalent was the thick black cable spilling out of the room, running all the way through the Tower to the basement.

"So uh… I see _you_ guys have been busy," Cyborg remarked as he watched them work. He _wanted_ to offer his technical expertise, but he could never find the right time to ask without feeling like he were intruding, and no-one really _asked_ for his help.

"Yup," Ventus hummed as he dragged over a set of cooling fans to the sides of the machine.

"Ya-huh," Terra hummed dragging a canister of liquid nitrogen over.

"Mm-hm," Grey-Wing replied, completely fixated on her work.

"So… What _is_ all this?" Beast Boy asked.

" _This_ is what we're going to use to finally get that armor off of Terra's body so she can have an _actual_ shower. Oh, and, you know. A _life_ ," Ventus replied with a deadpan tone.

"That is _wonderful_!" Starfire squealed, bouncing up and down as she clapped her hands.

"So what's with the _goop_?" Cyborg asked looking at the amber-colored liquid.

"For lack of a better term, we're calling it Bacta," Grey-Wing hummed as she worked. "Removing Terra's armor is going to be incredibly painful after what we've found out about it, so we're going to need to suspend her body in a non-oxygenated environment while simultaneously coating her in a viscous layer of pain-killing chemicals and the like."

"And where did you _find_ all of this?" Robin asked.

"We haven't been running around with our thumbs up our asses. We've been raiding Slade's FOBs left and right trying to find anything about Terra's armor that we could, and today, we hit _paydirt_ ," the ex-brunette replied.

"What's with the enormous cable then?" the spiky-haired teen then asked.

"The power draw on the De-Skinner is going to be _massive_ , so we needed to establish a direct, physical connection to the generator down in the basement, otherwise we'd short out all the wall sockets on this floor," Grey-Wing replied. "I'm also going to need all of you to unplug or otherwise disconnect all non-essential appliances once we get started so the least amount of strain is placed on the generator."

"And if we don't?" Robin asked.

"It'll explode and topple the whole Tower," Jadework hummed without missing a beat.

"Yeah, so don't be a prejudiced dick to morally-gray characters and do what you're told for once," the ex-brunette huffed as he leered at Robin. "I finally have a chance to _end_ Terra's waking nightmare, and if you think about getting in the way of that, I'll show you _exactly_ what I learned from Slade. Do we understand each other?"

"Yes…" Robin bit out as he stomped off.

"So you really sure this is going to work?" Beast Boy asked.

"With a ninety-five percent certainty," Grey-Wing hummed as she worked. "Although~" she said in a sing-song tone as she sidled up against Cyborg. "I _could_ use another set of hands in there. Whad'ya say, big boy? Wanna give a girl a hand?" she asked batting her eyelashes at the cyborg.

"Um… uh…" the robotic teen stammered as the organic side of his face began to flush bright red, doubly-so once the genius girl began trailing a finger down his chestplate.

"Guys… What's happening here?" Beast Boy asked off to the side.

"None of your business," Raven sighed as she opened up a portal. "Why don't you go and unplug all that useless crap from your room so we can get the show on the road?" she asked before tossing the changeling in with a scream, Starfire flying off to do the same. Looking back into the room, she saw Ventus standing across from Terra as she sat on one of the infirmary beds, slowly unwrapping the bandages around her body until she was left mostly-bare aside from her armor. She wanted to step forward and say something, but her heart lurched when she saw the ex-brunette take the blond's hands into his own, their fingers interlaced as the blond looked up at him with pure adoration in her eyes, a soft smile on the aerokinetic's face as he cutely tilted his head to the side and probably said something really reassuring. _'Keep your cool, Raven. Keep your cool,'_ she told herself as she floated off. Last thing she wanted was to damage her standing with her friend because one of her temper tantrums destroyed what was probably incredibly-sensitive technology.

"Ven…" Terra said worriedly as she squeezed his hands. "Do you think this is going to work?"

"Hey, Grey-Wing's one of the smartest girls I know. Plus, the math is really sound, so I don't see why it _shouldn't_ work," he replied. "Plus, now we've got _two_ super-geniuses at work, so your chances are only getting better."

"Yeah, well, let's just hope she stops flirting long enough to make those final calibrations," the blond said as she looked around the teen's side, watching as the cyborg flushed every time their hands would touch.

"I think its sweet, to tell you the truth," the ex-brunette replied as he watched the two interact. "Plus, after that whole _Freaky Friday_ episode where Rae, Star, and I all got body-swapped, I happen to know about all of his most-important _hardware_ ," he said waggling his eyebrows.

"Hardware? Like what?" Grey-Wing asked with her curiosity piqued, Cyborg blushing brightly behind her as he tried to tell the ex-brunette to stop talking.

"Oh, you know, the important stuff. His heart, his lungs, more than half of his brain, not to mention, his pe-"

"PENCHIL SHARPENER! I installed a PENCIL SHARPENER so I could always sharpen my PENCILS!" the cyborg teen said before the ex-brunette could blurt out a very _private_ (giggity) detail for all to hear.

" _That_ too!" Ventus-whooped, while Grey-Wing giggled behind Cyborg's back.

"Well… _I'm_ scarred for life," Jadework shuddered as he turned away from the two.

"What, don't they have sex-ed in ninja school?" Ventus asked.

"Yeah, but it doesn't talk about sex between woman and _robot_ -"

"Cyborg! The politically correct term is _cyborg_!" Cyborg huffed.

"Yeah dude, try to be a little open-minded. He might be made of metal and circuits, but his heart is still human," Ventus replied.

"As well as _other_ things~" Grey-Wing purred.

"Well, I think I can see where _this_ conversation is going," Terra said as she drew the curtain closed around them and gave the two some privacy as Jadework left the room. " . . . Ven?"

"Yeah, Terr?" he asked, eyes widening in surprise as the blond threw herself at him, wrapping her arms around his neck as she mashed her lips against his. Her lips moved against his for several seconds before she disengaged from him, a flush on her cheeks.

"Thank you…" she said as tears began leaking out the corners of her eyes. "Thank you for coming back for me. If you didn't, I don't know what might've…" _***Chu***_ Her words were stopped short as she felt a pair of lips press themselves to her forehead, a flush on her cheeks as he smiled sweetly at her.

"Hey, what're friends for?" he said with a smile.

"Yeah… _friends,_ " the blond whispered to herself.

 _ ***TEEN TITANS***_

"Alright guys, are all non-essential appliances shut down?" Ventus asked an hour later.

"Everything's powered down, captain!" Beast Boy said giving a salute from outside the room, the others standing against the wall outside the infirmary next to him.

"The manipulator arms are fully booted up, and diagnoses show everything's all-green across the board," Cyborg said from the console on the left.

"Terra's biometrics are fully stable," Grey-Wing said from the console on the left, a wireframe of Terra's body in blue with the armor components rendered in red in front of her.

Between the two of them was Terra within the amber-colored Bacta, floating within the fluid with a breathing mask and goggles over her face. Her body was completely bare aside from the armor components which couldn't be physically removed, the girl's face flushing red as she put her hands over her chest and her groin to preserve her modesty. This left only the armor on her head, neck, shoulders, elbows, hands, hips, knees, and ankles. Her hair was tied back in a tight bun, keeping it away from as many of the armor components as it could.

"So uh, not that I'm _complaining_ or anything, but does she have to be _naked_ for all this _?_ " the changeling asked as he covered his eyes, peeking between his fingers.

"Eyes up here Beast Boy," Ventus said standing in front of the blond and obscuring her from view. "As for why she's mostly-naked, removing the armor's connection from her central nervous system is going to be _incredibly_ painful for her, so we needed to maximize her exposure to the Bacta she's currently suspended in," he said jabbing a thumb toward he amber-colored fluid behind him. "If you can't keep your animalistic urges in check, I'm going to have to ask you to leave. You're making the patient uncomfortable."

"Oh _ha-ha_ , I can turn into animals so my urges are _animalistic_. Good one," the green-skinned teen huffed sarcastically as he walked down the hall and stood next to Robin, who wanted more distance in case something exploded.

"Alright, we're about to begin," Grey-Wing said from the console. "The armor on her head is going to be removed first, and that's going to be the most-painful. After that we're going to work our way down her body."

"Are you sure you cannot do this painlessly?" Starfire asked.

"The armor components' connection to her nervous system is basically nano-filament wire wrapped _around_ her nerves. Once we begin removing those, it's going to be like barbed wire dragged across her pain receptors. Trust me when I say that _no_ amount of medication will be able to keep her out for that kind of treatment."

At this, the blond began to look around worriedly, wringing her hands in front of herself. The sound of a hand pressed to the glass causing her to look forward, she saw Ventus in front of the tank, a small smile on his own face as he placed his hand in front of her.

"Don't you worry about a thing, Terr. I'm going to be here for you every step of the way. You aren't alone in this," he said reassuring her, tears welling up in the blond's eyes as she pressed her hand to the inside of the tank, completely unworried of her nudity as she pretended he was the only one there. "Wing, Cy, you can begin when ready," the wind-wielding teen said resolutely, the two geniuses nodding to themselves as they began typing in commands to the console.

The machine beginning to hum loudly, Jadework sending liquid nitrogen into the computers' interiors as their temperatures rose, thin mechanical arms rose from the bottom of the tank, cuff-like hands clamping down on her wrists and ankles, forcing her into a standing position. Rising up behind the blond were a pair of silver-colored manipulator arms with crab-like clamps, and in the center were a number of tools sticking out. The two locking onto the bond's head-pieces, a set of micro-tools began to extend until they plugged into the "knobs" on the armor pieces. A set of tools began to whir when suddenly-

" _ **AAAAAAAAAAGH!"**_ the blond suddenly let out a blood-curdling scream through her breathing apparatus, the others cringing or outright jumping out of their skin as the blond began to writhe, the manipulator arms' work cut out for them as they stopped her from flailing out.

"Terra! TERRA! STAY WITH ME!" the ex-brunette shouted as he slammed his palm onto the glass, the blond looking through tear-filled eyes at him only to clamp them shut as she let out another blood-curdling scream, the tools dutifully doing their work even as she continued to flail wildly against her restraints. A few seconds later, though to everyone else it felt like an eternity, the armor pieces sitting atop Terra's head finally came off, thin red clouds of blood bubbling into the Bacta out of Terra's skull as the armor pieces floated down to the bottom of the tank, a pair of manipulator arms taking them out of the chamber keeping it clear of unnecessary obstructions. "Terra! Terra can you hear me!?" Ventus shouted as he slammed his palm on the glass, Terra raising her head and weakly smiling at him, giving him a thumbs-up even as she cried from the pain.

"The Bacta's doing its work," Grey-Wing reassured him. "If she weren't floating in pain-killer, that kind of shock would've caused her to flat-line," she said as a manipulator arm went to the back of her neck, a laser-cutter causing her to cringe as the piece of armor around her collar was peeled away. "Alright, we're about to move onto the next pair of components. Are you ready?"

"Terra. Terra, we're about to start again. Are you ready for this?" Ventus asked getting her attention, the blond placing her hands up against the glass and nodding her head. Ventus placing his own hands across from hers, Grey-Wing and Cyborg nodded to one another before they activated the next set of coding, the blond letting out another blood-curdling cry as the quasi-magnetic manipulators began to un-coil the micro-filament wire from her nervous system.

 _ ***TEEN TITANS***_

"I cannot stand to listen!" Starfire cried as she curled up in the corner, covering her ears with her hands as the treatment went on.

"Don't worry, Star. It'll be over soon," Raven said through her T-Comm. After the first scare, she relegated herself to wait it out in her room. She was lucky a window against the wall was the _only_ thing to get damaged after that first blood-curdling scream.

"We're about to remove the last of the armored components," Grey-Wing stated.

"Are you sure this is safe? Terra's barely-conscious," Cyborg said worriedly as he took a look at the blond's vitals.

"Her heart's been under a lot of stress from the pain, but she's still within acceptable levels," the genius reassured. "Beginning procedure."

"Beginning procedure," Cyborg repeated as he worked the console, the two manipulator arms clamping onto the armor at Terra's ankles, micro-tools diving into the "knobs" while a laser cutter cut a line through the opposite side of the armor to Terra's skin. The blond's scream was now more like a gurgle, her flailing much weaker as she had tired herself out from all the flailing. She nodded her head in and out of consciousness, the ex-brunette pacing a circle into the floor as he kept a worried gaze on her.

"Aaand… we're… _done_ ," the genius sighed as the last of the armor components came away, leaving the blond completely bare, the wounds from the _intrusive_ nature of her former hardware sealing up quickly.

"Terra, Terra did you hear that? Terra, we're all finished," Ventus said placing his hands against the glass, the blond's eyes glossed over from the pain as she regarded the hazy blob of color and noise in front of her. "Is she going to be okay?"

"She'll be fine. The pain-killer is doing its job, though she's going to be largely insensate for a while," Grey-Wing stated. "Hopefully we didn't _break_ her, but we'll just have to wait and see."

"Is there enough room in there for two?" the ex-brunette asked.

"Why do you ask?" Cyborg questioned.

"Look at her. She's in tears and sobbing into her mouthpiece. She's been through a lot, so I think more than anything, she needs a friend to let her know everything's okay," he answered.

"Well, the treatment's over and the manipulator arms are retracted, so I suppose there _is_ enough room for two," she answered. Nodding his head, Ventus ran out the room, coming back less than a minute later clad in a pair of black swim trunks, a two-part yellow swimsuit from the blond's room in his hand. Putting on a pair of goggles and a re-breather in his mouth, he climbed atop the machine and opened the lid with a _***hiss***_ , before he slowly lowered his feet into the Bacta.

His feet touching down, the ex-brunette nudged the blond's hand with his own, the girl blinking her eyes as a flinch ran up her body. Blinking the bleariness from her eyes, weakly brushing the hair from her vision, she saw her most-trusted friend floating inches from her, one of her swimsuits in his hand. Pointing a finger at the garment with a questioning look on his face, the blond gave him a nod, the brunette nodding in turn as he lowered himself, a flush on his face as he slowly worked the bottom part of the blond's swimsuit up her legs. Sparks of pain ran up the blond's spine as the material ran along her skin, but she bore with it as the bottom-part finally reached its destination. Weakly raising her arms, the blond reached around her back and tied the swimsuit to her frame, preserving her modesty.

The ex-brunette then spelled out the words **You good?** with his finger, the blond nodding her head and slowly spelling out a **Yeah**.

 **That's good. How are you feeling?**

 **Like shit. Everything stings.**

 **I'm so sorry. Did I do the wrong thing bringing your swimsuit in here?**

 **No. Now that the armor's gone, I realized just how naked I was.**

 **Hey, you don't hear me complaining. If I said you had a great body, would you hold it against me?**

 **You flatterer** Terra spelled out as she playfully bat at his chest. **Thank you. Thank you for saving me** she spelled out as she slowly wrapped her arms around his neck, sparks of pain and pleasure dancing across her body as the two of them embraced within the slowly-warming Bacta.

 **Any time** the ex-brunette spelled out as he returned the hug.

 **Why Ven, is that a snake in your trunks or are you just happy to see me?** the blond asked as something brushed up against her, a bit of mirth returning to her eyes. Her smile went all the way up to her eyes, knowing how her new body had his undivided _attention._

 **Hey, I'm holding onto a hot girl in nothing but my swimsuit. It's only natural** he spelled out as he backed a certain part of his anatomy away from her, only for the blond to grab onto the back of his waistband and pull them flush together.

 **I never said I didn't like it** she spelled as she batted her eyelashes at him from behind her goggles.

"Well… I think now would be a good time to leave the two alone," Grey-Wing said with a smile on her face as she herded the others out of the room, leaving the two whose powers were _literally_ like heaven and earth to bask in one another's company.

 _ ***TEEN TITANS***_

"So… How'd the procedure go?" Robin asked in the Ops. Center as Greywing led Cyborg and Starfire into the room. Once the screaming started, he and Beast Boy opted to leave and drown the blood-curdling cries out with some mindless television.

"It went off without a hitch. The Dermal Armor components are now inert and as far away from Terra's body as physically possible," she said holding up a tote box of armor components. "I'm going back to the G-Comet to study these in-depth so that in case something like this happens again, I can make the removal process a little less painful."

"Friend Wing of Grey, if you wish, you are more than welcome to move in, with _us_!" Starfire said with a smile on her face. "You have done so much for us and Ventus, it feels wrong to _not_ make the offer."

"Yeah, we could always use another techie on the team," Cyborg said scratching his cheeks. Suffice it to say, he was _not_ prepared to have a girl coming onto him after seeing his armor components. If anything, they probably _excited_ the genius girl. Of course, he was going to get _some_ form of revenge on the ex-brunette for so casually bringing up the topic of his _hardware_ up with the girl.

"That's sweet of you to offer, but…" she hummed. "It's still too soon for me to tie myself down to anyone place. Why do you think I live in a flying _tour bus_?" she asked. "Maybe after I get a couple more miles on my soul, I'll come back if the offer still stands, but for the time being, there's still more of the world I want to see."

"Well, until that time comes, consider yourself an honorary Titan," Robin said holding out a new T-Comm for the girl.

"Thanks, spiky. I'll be sure to stay in touch," the genius girl replied with a smile.

"Do you have to leave so soon?" Starfire asked sadly.

"Hey now, I'm not leaving right _away_ if that's what you're asking," she replied. "The G-Comet's still going to need some more repairs before I'm comfortable taking her cross-country."

"What about _you_ Jadework? You wanna become an honorary Titan?" Beast Boy asked.

"Only as long as my communications device has any trackers disabled," the ninja huffed.

"But if we do that, we won't be able to keep track of your location," Raven stated.

"In case you haven't noticed, I'm a ninja. A tracking device sort of defeats the purpose," he huffed. "I'll leave the communicator alone, but I will _not_ have a super-villain tracking me down wherever I am just because _you guys_ want to know where I am. I'd rather not have "Big Brother" watching me," he said making air quotes.

"That's understandable, you being a ninja and all," the changeling shrugged.

"So where are friends Ventus and Terra now?" Starfire asked.

"They're waiting in the Bacta tank. The procedure ended a while ago, but Terra's nerves are still going to be inflamed from the removal process," Grey-Wing stated.

" _They're_ waiting?" Raven asked looking up from her book.

 _ ***TEEN TITANS***_

A few hours later, the sun had set and dinner was being prepared in the now-restored kitchen, now with fresh ingredients since the grocery store in town had begun doing business again. Cyborg was whipping up some chicken and waffles to celebrate, Beast Boy was off to the side making some kind of veggie-concoction, Starfire was making… _something else_ , and Raven was making a nice salad for everyone while Jadework was making a large pot of fried rice.

The sound of the sliding doors opening drew everyone's attention to the back of the room, where they saw Ventus and Terra walking practically shoulder-to-shoulder towards them, toweling off their hair and laughing together. Venus was clad in a loose-fitting yellow shirt and gray-camouflage pajama pants, while Terra, now freed from her armor prison, was clad in the same yellow shorts and black **T** -marked shirt she'd worn after her return.

"Hello. Terra," Raven bit out.

"O-Oh! Hey Raven," Terra said nervously as she jumped out of her skin, stepping slightly behind the ex-brunette. "How long have _you_ been there?"

"Long enough," the mage returned. "Ventus. I assume Terra hasn't stepped out of line or anything?"

"Don't worry, Rae, she's been a perfect little angel," the ex-brunette replied.

"You don't _say_ ," the mage huffed as she glowered at the blond. "You don't think that a change of clothes will make us all forgive you, do you?"

"W-What're you talking about?" the blond asked nervously.

"Don't play dumb with me. You're wearing your _hero uniform_ so we'll forget everything that happened. Well I just want you to know," she said tightening her grip on her salad tongs. "It isn't going to work."

"Yeah. You turned against us and joined Slade's faction of your own will. You're still on the chopping block for that," Robin huffed.

"Oh ho ho ho ho ho!" Ventus chortled like a certain heiress out of Street Fighter. "On the contrary, Captain Hairgel Lad. New evidence has recently come to light that casts doubt as to how much of Terra's doubt is founded."

"What're you talking about?" Robin asked with narrowed eyes.

"After having Cyborg run these culinary implements through a full-spectrum analysis-" Ventus said holding up evidence bags with a plastic tray and silverware in it.

"Hold it! _I'm_ the crime-fighter here! Why didn't you let _me_ take part in this analysis?" Robin demanded. Oddly enough this was the _first_ time the processing of actual _evidence_ had come up in their crime-fighting escapades in Jump. Back in Gotham, that sort of thing was more commonplace where he and Batman usually arrived _after_ the fact.

"Because you might've chosen _that_ very moment to _cast aside_ your morals and doctor evidence so everyone would follow your lead in continuing to hate this adorable blond super-powered girl," Ventus said protectively wrapping his arm around Terra's shoulders.

"I would _never_ do something so legally ambiguous!" the spiky-haired teen demanded.

"Uh… Does _Red-X_ ring any bells?" the ex-brunette asked, causing the spiky-haired teen to cringe as everyone looked at him suspiciously.

"I was doing it for a good reason!" the spiky-haired teen argued.

"It isn't about doing _the right thing_. It's about doing things _the right way_ ," Ventus argued.

"So uh… What exactly did you dudes find?" Beast Boy asked.

"Preliminary analysis indicated traces of sulfur, charcoal, and potassium nitrate," Cyborg answered.

"What does that mean in the not-king's English?" Starfire asked.

"In layman's terms, Terra's eating implements had traces of _gunpowder_ on them!" Ventus said shockingly. _***Dun-Dun-DUUUUUUN!***_

"Where did that noise come from?" Starfire asked.

"Sound effect app I asked Cy to install in my T-Comm.," the ex-brunette answered holding up said device.

"And this changes things _how_ exactly?" Raven asked.

"This and other evidence suggests that Terra's actions were not _entirely_ of her own volition. For the time being however, I will focus on the gunpowder before moving onto more-compelling evidence," Ventus stated. "On note of why the gunpowder mixed into her food is important, _gunpowder_ as some of you may or may not know contains Toluene, giving it hallucinogenic properties. Mixing it into food is a common trick by warlords in third-world countries during the training of child soldiers to keep them drugged, but more specifically, _controllable_!" _***Dun-Dun-DUUUUUUN!***_

"He _what_!?" Terra gawped.

"You mean you didn't know?" Raven asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Well I _did_ think the food tasted funny, but Slade always told me those were _nutrient_ supplements to help me develop my body after years of malnutrition," she said running her hands along the now-present curves of her body. Beast Boy drooled slightly at the sight, but Cyborg smacked him over the back of the head for good measure.

"So… Terra did _not_ wish to attack us the way she did then?" Starfire asked, her eyes glittering with hope. Like diamonds. Or the Hope Diamond.

"There was _some_ part of her that wanted to do that, I'm being un-biased enough to admit," Ventus stated causing Terra to slump. "However! This and other evidence suggests that there was more going on than most of you cared to realize before you all tried to execute her right next to me," he said with narrowing eyes, the others cringing back at the black bars that appeared above and below his gaze. However, once their focus widened, they realized that Grey-Wing and Jadework were merely holding up a set of black tiles in front of his face for visual effect like out of an action movie. "Now, can anyone tell me what _this_ is?" he asked holding up an innocuous-looking CD.

"I believe that is the disc of compactness," Starfire answered.

"Correct, it's a CD. Now, can anyone tell me what's _on_ it?" Ventus asked.

"Uh… _No_. We haven't listened to it before," Robin snapped.

"Well then why don't we take a listen-loo, shall we?" he asked as he slid it into the music-playing hardware at the front of the tower. Pressing the Play button, the other Titans didn't notice any unreasonable change until-

"AAAAAAAAGH!" Beast Boy screamed before he fell to the ground clutching his pointed ears. "DUDE! Shut it off! SHUT IT OFFFFF!"

"Um… _What_ just happened?" Raven asked worriedly.

"Some form of noise with a very high pitch, which the Beast Boy is clearly more susceptible to than myself," Starfire said cleaning out her ear.

"Okay I'll bite, what _was_ on that CD?" Robin asked with a raised eyebrow. Ventus' answer was to move some knobs on the console, slowing the reading of the CD down before the speakers began droning out- "I am Slade, your lord and master. Do as I command, and all you desire shall be yours. I am Slade, your lord and master. Do as I command, and all you desire shall be ours. I am Slade, your lord and master. Do as I command, and-"

"Dude, that is _so_ fucking creepy," Beast Boy grumbled as the masked man's voice continued to drone on out. Like, from beyond the _grave_.

" _What's_ going on exactly?" Cyborg asked.

"It's… some form of subliminal messaging," Robin groaned, reluctant to admit. "The original message was played at such a high speed at such a high frequency, that an ordinary person wouldn't be able to _consciously_ recognize it."

"And what does this mean for Terra's case?" Starfire asked.

"It means Slade was _brainwashing_ her," Raven grumbled, realizing the Terra-gone-bad case was getting weaker and weaker by the second.

"Oh, that is most-wonderful _news_!" Starfire cheered as she scooped the blond up into a rib-crushing hug, swinging the girl around back-and-forth. "Friend Terra is _not_ the evil manipulative female dog we thought her to be!"

"Um, I think you mean bi-"

"Yes, that's exactly what it means," Ventus said slapping a hand over Cyborg's mouth before he could corrupt the innocent space-girl. "But wait, there's _more_!" the ex-brunette said swinging his arm like on an infommercial. "Buy two pieces of case-cracking evidence and you'll get the third _free_!" he whooped holding up one of Terra's Dermal Armor hairpieces.

"I'm almost afraid to ask, but _what_ pray tell does that have to do with the present case at hand?" Raven asked.

"Grey-Wing. Send out the signal," he asked as he drew the others closer with a waggle of his finger. The Titans gathering around the innocuous-enough hair ornament, when a thin needle shot up suddenly with a _***shink***_ , the Titans let out non-masculine or otherwise effeminate shrieks of-

"EYAAAAAAAH!"

"What was on my _head_?!" Terra gawped pointing at the needle that suddenly came out. "That was going _INTO_ my head!?"

"Yep! And you know what's _inside_ it? _Dopamine_!" the ex-brunette said enthusiastically.

"You mean the feel-good neurochemical?" Cyborg realized.

"Yep! Whenever Terra did something Slade agreed with, he'd send a signal to these hair-pieces and send minuscule amounts of dopamine into Terra's bloodstream. Pumped full of these feel-good chemicals, Terra was forced to experience exhilaration at times where she herself would not wish to feel those emotions, such as terrorizing powerless civilians or other forms of collateral damage!" Ventus narrated.

"So what does this all mean exactly?" Raven asked, almost dreading the answer.

"It _means_ … that Terra wasn't _entirely_ in control of herself when she went on her little rampage…" Robin groaned.

"Thaaaat's _right_ , Roby-poo!" the ex-brunette said much to the teen's ire. "When Slade recruited me, he did it because of a fire in my eye or some other metaphorical bullshit. When that didn't work, he aimed for an apprentice-candidate with prior-training and resorted to blackmail to keep him _*cough* Robin_ _*cough*_ under his retinue. When _that_ didn't work, he targeted the feelings of a susceptible super-powered teenage girl swimming in teen-hormones and used chemicals, subliminal messaging, drugs, and cybernetically-invasive implants as well as _more_ chemicals to coerce her into doing whatever he wanted!"

"So friend Terra was _not_ the evil female dog! Oh, that is most _wonderful_!" Starfire squealed as she went in for another hug. Terra, having been trained in bits and pieces of ninjutsu by Slade, grabbed a nearby Beast Boy and changed places with him at the last moment, leaving the changeling to receive the full brunt of Starfire's affectionate "feels".

"And with that, I demand a _re-trial_!" the ex-brunette demanded.

"Okay I've humored you for long enough. _Why_ should we change the parameters of Terra's punishment?" Robin demanded. "In case you don't remember, Terra, tried, _TO KILL US_!"

"So did _you guys_ when you left me here to die with no backup, but you don't see _me_ holding a grudge," Ventus returned.

"Held a grudge against _me_ pretty badly," Raven grumbled.

"THAT'S BECAUSE YOU SUBVERTED MY FREE WILL AND MADE ME YOUR ZOMBIE MIND-SLAVE!" the whitette raged. "Anyway, as I was saying to Robin, if you will remember the day we were selecting our team's leader so many months ago, as some of you may or may not recall, it was _I_ , not Robin, but _myself_ who won the Ultimate Marvel versus Street Fighter 3 video game tournament. While I merely _ceded_ leadership duties to Robin because I didn't want to do it myself, the fact of the matter still exists that _my_ leadership authority supersedes his own!"

"Oh that is such _bullshit_!" Robin raged, tongues of flame spilling out his mouth with each syllable.

"Seems pretty cut-and-dry to _me_ , bro," Beast Boy shrugged.

"In the end, his thumbs were mightier than our own," Cyborg sighed dramatically.

"You guys can _not_ be taking this seriously, right?" Robin grumbled.

"On Tamaran, it is not uncommon to settle disputes over leadership with some form of game when fighting to the near-death is not viable for the long-term of the campaign," Starfire stated matter-of-factly as she adjusted round glasses with a lab coat over her shoulders.

" _I_ told _you going to that prop store's everything-must-go sale was a good idea,"_ Beast Boy whispered to Cyborg.

"So what, are we just going to _forget_ everything she's done?!" Robin demanded.

"Nooooo. That would be _retarded_ ," Ventus dead-panned. "What I _am_ saying, is you all _forgive_ her, because she wasn't completely within her own mind. And there were _drugs_ involved. Need I point out the third piece of evidence again?" he said holding up the armored hair-clip, the needle popping up and down accompanied by the soundtrack of the shower scene in Psycho.

 _ ***RN-RN-RN-RN***_

"NO!" most of the Titans demanded.

"The defense rests!" the brunette shouted. "Come along Terra, let's see about getting that ankle-cuff taken off before I go to the mayor and show him these pieces of evidence so the JCPD doesn't have kill-on-sight-if-that-girl-turns-evil orders anymore."

"Objection!" Robin demanded, now clad in a blue suit, a single loch of his hair juttnig forward.

"Hold it!" Ventus retaliated, clad in a burgundy suit of his own, his hair parted away from his forehead and a frilly ascott at his neck.

"Dudes, this is just like Phoenix Wright versus Miles Edgeworth!" Beast Boy squealed as the two stood behind opposing stands.

"Except the Vietnam-era gasoline flamethrower Vent just whipped out," Cyborg re-iterated as Ventus pulled out said flamethrower and flared it ominously from behind the prosecutor's stand.

"What, like from the Christmas party?" Beast Boy asked as "Robin Wright" ran for his life.

"Yeah, but that wasn't canon," a third interjected.

 _*Gasp*_ "Uncle Grandpa! You _are_ real!" Beast Boy squealed at the oddly-shaped man who was suddenly amongst them.

"For the love of God, _not again_!" Raven cried as she ran from the third trans-dimensional entity to suddenly appear in the Tower. Two was bad enough, she was _not_ going to stick around for a third.

 _ ***TEEN TITANS***_

"Well, Terra, it was really hard pleading your case to the mayor, but thankfully, all he asked for in turn for rescinding those kill-on-site orders were that I make an appearance at his daughter's next birthday party. I wonder why that was," the ex-brunette hummed.

" _Yeah, I wonder why,"_ the blond grumbled. Seriously, sometimes it was hard to tell if the guy was faking it, or he really _didn't_ notice how he drew the affection of girls to him. "But… Thank you for everything. Not _everyone_ would've held onto hope for so long that they could find evidence to exonerate me of _some_ of my wrongdoings."

"Hey, I just figured that with all the time and money he put into that armor of yours, there had to be some _extra_ bells & whistles we weren't aware of," the brunette shrugged. "Plus, not including his daughter, he'd burned through _two_ apprentices before coming upon you, so I doubt he'd take on a third without something fool-proof. I'm just lucky we happened upon that cafeteria otherwise I couldn't have started hyper-analyzing things the way I did."

"Dude, did dying and then coming back all those times make you _smarter_?" the blond asked.

"I didn't have a Gate of Truth FMA-moment if _that's_ what you're asking. But _yes_ , I feel like my eyes are a little more open than they were before," the ex-brunette stated. "I somehow feel like all that dying-and-coming-back will bite _someone_ in the ass later on down the road, but gosh darn it, I'm too hopped upon dopamine and estrogen from shoving a proverbial bus up Robin's ass I don't care."

"I thought only _girls_ had estrogen."

"Yeah, all that dying-and-coming-back may've killed _some_ of my brain cells," the white-haired teen admitted. "That might also be why my hair turned white," he said raking his fingers through his lochs.

"I think the guy who made the Taj Mahal got white hair because his wife died," Terra hummed. "No, wait, that's really off-topic. What I _want_ to ask is… Are things really going to go back to normal that all this really obscure shit has come to light?"

"Honestly? . . . No, I don't think things _will_ go back to normal," the red-eyed teen sighed. "But who said _normal_ was so great anyway? Albert Einstein wasn't normal. Martin Luther King Junior wasn't normal. Mahatma Gandhi wasn't normal. _Normal_ doesn't change the world. It's the _abnormal_ ones that say 'Fuck You' to the universe and actually gets shit done. So, no, things will _not_ go back to normal, because that'd be really fucking boring. Times change. People change. Cultures change. But as long as people are willing to _accept_ that change and we don't stagnate, no-one will be dumb enough to resort to nuclear warfare like something out of Fallout."

"Wow… I never really thought of it that way," Terra realized.

"Terr, I've traveled all over the world by flying through the skies or stowing away on cruise liners and using the computer-hacking skills Slade had me learn to hack my name into the passenger manifest. If there's anything I learned, it's that knowledge from one source is only a single color, and there's a whole _rainbow_ of things you can learn to better yourself," Ventus stated. "So if you want to travel, just the two of us, then that's alright. I can turn in my letter of resignation to the mayor and the two of us can head off first thing in the morning. It doesn't _really_ matter if you or I come back here, there will _always_ be those who want to do good in the world, even though most people are just a bunch of cynical desensitized assholes who don't _give_ a shit."

"That… That sounds really great," Terra said with a smile on her face. "But… I think I've walked that lonely road long enough. I'm ready to let my feet rest and just enjoy the scenery, you know? Plus, I did a lot of damage to the city, and I'd feel bad if I didn't make up for it, you know?"

"That's the spirit!" Ventus said with a smile. "If Superman can regain the people's trust after leading an alien invasion against the entire _planet_ , then so can you.

"I guess you're right," Terra realized. Compared to what Superman did, _hers_ was small-potatoes, all it'd take was time. She had no delusions of getting everyone's forgiveness right away. "Thanks, Ven. Thanks for being my friend."

"No problem," the ex-brunette shrugged. "Well, I think we've had enough excitement for one day. I don't know about you, but I feel like turning in for the night."

"Right now? But you barely ate any dinner," the blond said worriedly.

"If I get hungry I'll sleepwalk to the kitchen and make a snack or something," he replied. "I just hope I'm wearing pants this time. Last time that happened, Raven didn't speak to me for a _week_ , and she must've been really offended by it because her face would turn really red and she'd squirm in rage."

' _Same old air-headed Ven,_ ' Terra thought as she shook her head. "Alright, I'll see you in the morning."

"You too," Ventus said with a smile as they went their separate ways. Shedding out of his clothes and getting into some pajamas, he went to the ensuite and splashed some water on his face before brushing his teeth. Idly scratching at his face, the teen groaned as he pulled the bandages from around his eye, squinting in the light before looking at himself in the mirror. His pupil no longer clouded over, he leaned forward and got a better look at himself. "Well now… _That's_ an interesting change."

 _ ***TEEN TITANS***_

 **As a certain spiky-haired Saiyan with a widow's peak once said, I'M BACK BITCHES!**

 **But in all seriousness, yes, I am back. And I have a good reason for not updating what's arguably my most-popular story for so long. That might not be** _ **satisfying**_ **, but I feel like I should give you "Venterra" fans out there some kind of explanation.**

 **First and foremost, there was real-life I had to deal with; North Central Institute is a technical college for my chosen major, Airframe & Powerplant Maintenance, or the repair and upkeep of airplanes. It was a fast-running course, so studying for that took up a lot of time. After **_**that**_ **is the work that I had a Teaser of in the previous story,** **Young Justice: The Hunter** **. I'd spent over a year planning out storylines for the massive-multi-crossover, exchanging hundreds if not** _ **thousands**_ **of PMs to sort everything out, and it might be one of my longest-running stories upon completion.**

 **After that came my RWBY story,** **Giant-Slayer** **. Originally it wasn't going to be published until** _ **this**_ **year (as of 2015). However, when Monty Oum, the web-based animator and writer for Roosterteeth's** **Red vs Blue** **and** **RWBY** **, as well as** **Haloid** **and** **Dead Fantasy** _ **, died**_ **, I was devastated, but in memory of him, decided to post** **Giant-Slayer** **a year ahead of schedule. Pretty much all of his works inspired me, especially his works for** **Red vs Blue** **, and thus this and other works simply fell onto the back-burner.**

 **HOWEVER! I sincerely hope to change all that, as I'm holding back on** **Giant-Slayer** **until I get my other stories updated, including** **Naruto Tenryo** **and** **Naruto EXE Subspace** **for my longer-standing readers, updated. I hope to spread-out my attention, and not let my more-prominent fanfiction (as well as** **XCOM 2** **or** **Deus Ex: Mankind Divided** **for the PS4) get in the way.**

 **And now onto things for** _ **this-chapter**_ **. Terra only wore her Dermal Armor for 2 episodes, excluding the ones where she's turned to stone, and the reason her chest and groin-pieces are removable (NOT FOR FANSERVICE) is because from a biological standpoint, Slade would've designed the armor to accommodate for Terra's future growth. Also, he picked Terra up** _ **by**_ **her chest armor, showing that it's removable to a degree. The rest however, was** _ **not**_ **so much.**

 **I'm not sure** _ **how**_ **I came up with the idea for the** _ **invasive**_ **properties of the armor to involve nano-scopic filament wires wrapping** _ **around**_ **her nervous system, but it just seemed appropriate for a system that'd allow someone to use another person's powers like their own** _ **.**_ ** _The pain bit during the procedure was just because that armor didn't look like it could be removed by conventional means, and armor that was literally bonded to her body would be painful to remove._**

 **As for the other stuff (i.e. Vent's coma, the city getting back on its feet, and the gangs digging themselves in), I set them up to add a bit of realism to the story, but still keep it interesting. While Beast Boy may act like a goof, when he's determined to get something accomplished, he's just as competent as Robin, if not moreso. Gadgets may be great and good, but nothing beats a wholly mammoth battering ram. On note of the White Collar reference in relation to Terra's punishment last-chapter, I figured Terra wouldn't be let off Scott-free or with a slap on the wrist, so I tried to add a little something to that part of the story as well. As for me saving Terra, I just couldn't bring myself to have her turn to stone. Plus it would probably tear Vent up inside and send him spiraling downward into a depression.**

 **I could probably write a one-shot about that or something, but I digress. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I certainly had my share of fun repairing Ventus and Terra's strained relationship, as well as the "fluff" I saw fit to add to things. The rating change from T to M implies some things will become more-serious in both word and deed, so look forward to that. On top of what happens in the Episodes, I'm also going to try and make some stories from the Comic, as well as some all-original works.  
**


	5. Rock and a Hard Place

The following morning, breakfast was a little more than _tense_. With new evidence having come to light that Slade had used drugs, chemicals, and subliminal messaging to subvert Terra's will with his own, the Titans' hatred for the geokinetic blond was in a state of flux.

While it was true that Terra had tried to kill them, part of that _was_ due in part to Slade's _direct_ manipulations of her body and mind, not just certain promises of reward made. On Ventus' side of the matter were of course Terra, Starfire, and Grey-Wing who helped corroborate the evidence that Slade was using mind-altering drugs. On Robin's side that insisted Terra still be held to the _same_ amount of accountability were Robin himself, Raven, Beast Boy, and Cyborg. Jade on the other hand remained largely neutral in the matter.

It was after the indirect confrontation of the breakfast table that Beast Boy suddenly slammed his hands on the table and shouted-

"DUDE! YOUR EYE!" he screamed as he pointed to the left side of Ventus' face, having _finally_ noticed what was off about it.

"Took an awfully long time for _that_ horse to cross the finish line," the aerokinetic stated as he drank his milk.

"HOW DID WE NOT NOTICE THAT?!" Cyborg cried as he pointed at the ex-brunette's left eye.

"It's rude to point. I just got this thing back, I don't want it gouged out by accident or anything," Ventus went on like there was nothing wrong.

"WHEN WERE YOU GOING TO _TELL_ US YOUR EYE HEALED?!" Terra gawped.

"Once again, _you all_ took your sweet time noticing this," Ventus said pointing up to his left eye. Where before it had a large vertical scar running through it and having thick gauze on after being sliced in half, his eye was _now_ completely healed. Of course, the major difference was that compared to the bright crimson of his right eye, his left was now a startling shade of dark-blue/indigo. The bulk of them turning to the residential mage, saw that both Ventus' and her own eyes were the same color.

"Friends, a question, if I may. Is this this what you call, the normal?" Starfire asked.

"No… No it is _not_ ," Cyborg said with a shake of his head, his ocular prosthesis scanning it anything short of invasively. "I can say without a doubt that we are _not_ seeing things. That's his real eye, not a contact or some kind of illusion."

"Yeah, I was pretty shocked about it too," the white-haired teen replied as he looked himself over in the reflection of his spoon. "It isn't _ideal_ , but hey, it _does_ look kinda cool."

"This may've been a result of my own magic at work," Raven realized. "If you give me a little time, I'm sure I can get your original eye color back."

"Nuh-uh. After the _last_ time you messed with my eye, I'm leaving well enough alone," Ventus said shaking his hands. "Everything _seems_ like it's still in order, so I'll see if I can't get Dr. Slim to give me some kind of eye exam to make sure everything's working correctly."

"If that's what you _want_ …" Raven sighed in defeat. She knew that the last time she _forced_ him into anything, it didn't turn out well.

"Horray for depth perception!" the white-haired teen cheered as he exaggeratedly strolled about the room.

"Hey um… are you _sure_ that dying and then coming back didn't give him brain damage?" the changeling asked.

"You're not really one to talk on the subject," Raven huffed.

"I am _not_ brain-damaged!" the changeling argued.

"Yeah, we prefer _retarded_!" Cyborg stated.

"Hey!" the changeling whined.

"Anyway, now that I've got my sight back and things are more or less back to normal around here, I have an announcement to make," the ex-brunette said clapping his hands together. "Terra and I shall be leaving here for an indefinite amount of time."

"WHAT!?" everyone gawped.

"You are leaving?" Starfire gasped. "Friend Ventus, why is this so?"

"Like I said before, Terra's power-shift needs to be addressed, and doing that on the same island we _live_ on doesn't seem like a particularly smart idea. Especially how Slade almost _sank_ our island," he replied. "As such, the two of us won't be back until we either get a grip on her powers, or we _have_ to come back."

"But when will you return?" the Tamaranean asked worriedly.

"I just _said_. _Indefinite,"_ the white-haired teen retorted. "Either once we get Terra her control back, or we _have_ to come home because you guys get in over your head," the ex-brunette answered.

"Oh c'mon, when does _that_ ever happen?" Beast Boy asked.

"All the time. _Literally_ all the time," the ex-brunette answered. "Anyway, before we can go on our trip, we're going to need some supplies, and to that end, Terra and I shall go… _shopping_!"

"Shopping?" the blond asked.

"Yes. Shopping. Even a badass like me can enjoy the benefit of mindlessly splurging money on non-essential items," he replied. "Cyborg! Bring the car around! Terra and I are going on a little day-trip."

"Terra _smashed_ the T-Car, remember?" the cyborg asked tiredly.

"Oh please, I _know_ you have a spare in reserve, even if it _doesn't_ have all the bells and whistles attached yet."

" . . . You wouldn't be wrong," he sighed. Tony Stark had dozens of Iron Man Armor, so he himself felt it was prudent to have a _spare_ T-Car, even if, like Ventus said, the "bells and whistles" weren't included. "Come along. I'll get the keys," he said opening a slot in his hand, where said keys jumped out into his waiting palm. "Okay, we can go now."

" _Isn't a key-holder in his hand a little excessive?"_ Terra asked as she followed after Cyborg.

" _It's_ his _body. He can do whatever he wants with it,"_ Ventus returned. _"Isn't that_ right _big guy?"_ he asked waggling his eyebrows as he jabbed a thumb over his shoulder to Grey-Wing, the cyborg blushing as the girl waved her fingers at him.

 _ ***TEEN TITANS***_

Though things had begun to regain a sense of normalcy in Jump City, the undeniable fact remained that there were still many stores left unattended to in the wake of Slade's attack. This meant that many of the current listings for camping goods were no longer viable, and as a result, the three trip-goers drove around in circles for hours, trying to find anywhere that was open or hadn't been looted to the floorboards. While the backup T-Car didn't have as many of the bells-and-whistles that Cyborg was so proud to have installed in its predecessor, at the very least it had enough going for it that it was a comfortable ride.

"So Ven… What're we looking for exactly?" Terra asked as he T-Car came to a stop.

"Basic camping supplies," the ex-brunette shrugged. "Tent, sleeping bags, fire-starters, etcetera."

"So we really _will_ be out there for a while?" the blond asked hopefully.

"As long as it takes," Ventus said turning to face her. "I've been a bad friend to you for a while now, so it's time I started doing better by you."

"No, Ven. If anyone's been the terrible friend around here, it's me."

"No, me."

"No, _me_."

"No, me!"

"No, _me_!"

"No! ME!"

"No! _ME_!"

"Both of you shut your traps or I will _turn this car around_!" Cyborg raged as the two bickered.

"We're sorry," the two teens pouted.

' _Great, now they're making me feel like the bad guy,'_ Cyborg grumbled to himself as he rubbed his chrome dome. "Anyway… I'm gonna go grocery shopping at that mini-mall back up the road. You sure the two of you will be alright on your own?"

"Sure. What could go wrong?" the aerokinetic asked.

"Slade's gone, and all the supervillains have started lying low. I think we can handle a little shopping without incident," Terra added, regaining some of her confidence.

"I hope you're right," the cyborg replied as the two got out. "If things get dicey, just give me a call on the T-Comm and I'll be right over."

"Sure thing!" the ex-brunette replied waving him off. "So… Do you want a tent with camouflage pattern, or something a little more ga-"

"Gay?"

"Garish," the ex-brunette finished. "Seriously, not _every_ word that starts with G and A ends with a Y."

"Sorry, I couldn't help myself," the blond chuckled. "With how oblivious you are to girls' feelings sometimes, I can't help but wonder if you play for the opposite team."

A moment later the blond clapped her hands over her mouth, realizing she'd just said that out loud. Straight to his face. Obviously, there was an enormous crimson blush across her face.

"First off. Terra. I'm aware that I have a magnetic _god damn_ penis. Secondly. I'm aware that I'm basically a sexy beast. However! Despite those two things, I do _not_ have to act like a horny _mother fucker_ all the god damn time on a quest for _bootay_ just because I'm surrounded by ultra-hot girls with super-powers! A guy _can_ act with a little decorum and want to have a healthy _working_ relationship with his female co-workers without throwing pussy-pounding into the mix and making things weird the next morning," he openly admitted, catching the blond completely flat-footed with how _dirty_ he was talking.

It kinda turned her _on_ actually.

"Um… _Wow_ , uh… I just assumed..."

"Assumed what?"

"That… You know… _You didn't know you had so many girls wanting to get into your pants…_ " she mumbled to herself. It wasn't _just_ the female super-heroes that got objectified. There was no shortage of horny fangirls who wanted to get into the pants of guys like Superman, Batman, or even the Flash. Also, she'd _seen_ the kinds of girls that populated the Ventus Fan Club: Jump City Branch. Some of those bitches were _damn_ thirsty.

"Of _course_ I noticed! How could I _not_ notice all the little tells and signals the girls around me have been giving off all this time?" he asked. "In _faaact_ …" he said in a deeper tone as he placed his left hand against the nearby wall and leaned over her. "You've been a _baaad_ girl recently. I might just have to _punish_ you like the others wanted. All. Night. Long," he enunciated with a hungry look in his eyes that sent shivers up the girl's spine. "Waddya say, hot-stuff? You wanna ride the whirlwind? Don't think I don't notice how hot you've gotten since you got back," he said eyeing her new curves. " _Love_ the new look," he added with a wink.

" _Hoo…"_ the blond squeaked as she _hoo_ ed like an owl. _'Is this really happening? Is Ven actually looking at me like a woman, and not_ one of the guys _?'_ she asked herself as she pinched her arm. _'Mmm! Yeah. That smarts. I am_ not _dreaming… Holy crap! I'M NOT DREAMING! THIS IS THE BEST DAY_ EVER _!'_ she shouted to herself, doing a mental fist-pumb.

A moment later and the ex-brunette blinked owlishly, a confused look on his face as he straightened up. Looking around, his eyes re-focused and his head panned side to side before he looked right back at her. "Oh hey, Terra. When'd the two of us get to the sporting goods store?"

"Um… You know… A couple minutes ago…" she said nervously. "Don't you remember?"

"Huh… Remember what?"

"The uh… the _conversation_ we had a while ago," the blond answered, a growing knot of dread forming in the pit of her stomach, though she ignored it.

"Conversation?" he asked with a tilt of his head. " . . . OH! I get it. This must be one of those _memory lapses_ Grey-Wing was talking about."

" _Memory…_ lapses?" the blond choked out, the knot of dread in her stomach returning tenfold.

"You know. From dying and being resuscitated so many times in quick order. Said that sort of thing _may_ have killed a couple brain cells and messed with my short-term memory," the brunette shrugged. "If I said anything weird a few minutes back, I apologize. Anyway, do you want a tent with camouflage pattern, or something a little more garish?"

' _. . . What?'_ the blond asked herself. _'Are you telling me… that after I_ finally _awaken his libido…_ finally _get him to see me as a_ woman _… he_ forgets _it?!'_ The blond recoiled in horror. "No… No… No! No! No! NO! NO! NO! NO!" she started raging at lost opportunities.

"Geez, if you didn't want something garish, you could've just _said_ so. No need to have a _conniption_ about it," Ventus stated as the blond continued to go ballistic, completely oblivious to the girl's internal suffering.

"Ooooor _IS_ HE?!" a third party questioned loudly.

"Dammit, Eon! Go home!" Ventus shouted at the trans-dimensional entity from last-season, who for one reason or another chose to manifest in a nearby poster.

" _Or is he?"_ the trans-dimensional entity whispered right before Ventus peeled the poster away, crumpled it up, and tossed it in the trash.

"God, that guy's weird," he sighed. "Anyway… We should probably get going," he stated, turning to the blond at his side who, after several seconds of screaming, had finally run out of energy.

"Yeah… Sure… Let's do that…" Terra sighed as she walked alongside the ex-brunette, a happy-go-lucky look on his face all the while, whereas the blond was just emotionally exhausted.

 _ ***TEEN TITANS***_

What followed during the next hour was your ordinary shopping trip for camping supplies. With an extra-large cart in hand since Ventus planned on an extended stay out in the city, while he planned on doing the heavy lifting himself, Terra insisted on doing so instead. Given that Ventus wasn't so sexist as to think a woman couldn't handle a little manual labor, he acquiesced to her request, allowing the skinny blond to push the cart, leaving his hands free to hold the list as they loaded up.

Of course, it wasn't to say that Terra couldn't _handle_ the weight. While before she was as thin as a rail, thanks to the _regimen_ she'd gone through before re-joining the Titans, the blond's body was now in the best shape it'd ever been in. No longer malnourished, not only had her figure filled out quite nicely, but she'd developed a layer of muscle under those feminine attributes as well. While far from the likes of Batgirl or Huntress, Terra's physical strength alone was still quite substantial to a person in her weight class.

Hence, even when the contents of the cart began to exceed her own weight, it was no real problem for her.

"Tent?"

"Check," Terra replied pointing to the water-proof and bug-proof tent they'd purchased, which was yellow and black.

"Sleeping bags?"

"Check," she replied pointing to a pair of white-and-blue rolled-up sleeping bags.

"Extra blankets?"

"Check."

"Tarp?"

"Check."

"Electric lantern?"

"Check."

"Outdoor stove?"

"Check."

"Cooking utensils?"

"Check."

"Cutlery?"

"Check."

"Fishing rods?"

"Check."

"Fire-starters?"

"Check."

"Bottled water?"

"Check."

"Water filters?"

"Check."

"Canteens?"

"Trowel?"

"Check."

"Toilet Paper?"

"Check."

"Rope?"

"Check. Wait, why do we need _rope_?"

"Better to have it and not need it than not need it and really wish you had it," the ex-brunette said as he crossed out another item on his list. "MREs?"

"Ugh... Yes," the blond sighed.

"Hey, show some respect! Do you know how many men died to develop those meals?"

"I can tell you exactly how many: everybody who ever _tasted_ one."

"Bzzt! Wrong! The correct answer was _zero_ ," the ex-brunette retorted. "Anyway, I think we have enough supplies. Let's see about getting this all checked out."

As the two pushed their cart towards the front, the other shoppers gave them a wide berth. While Ventus' change in both hair and eye color made him almost completely unrecognizable, Terra's visage immediately stood out, her rampage through the city accompanied by hundreds of armed robots and three giant monsters still fresh on their minds. Children hid behind their mothers, wives behind their husbands, while others angrily clenched their fists at the girl supposedly getting off Scott-free.

It'd take time for the news of Slade's dubious manipulations to exonerate _some_ of Terra's wrongdoings, so until that time, she was still a villain in the people's eyes.

While Ventus was getting the contents of their cart checked out, Terra calling Cyborg to bring the car back around, one man in a store uniform shook angrily as the girl who tossed a car into his apartment during Slade's military takeover walked around without a care in the world. His brows twitching, he looked around before settling on an oil lantern on a nearby display. Picking it up, he tossed it a couple times in his hands to test the weight before slowly moving forward.

' _Take this!'_ the man thought to himself as he chucked the lamp at Terra as hard as he could- _***KRAK***_ -only for Ventus to direct the blond's gaze elsewhere, taking the hit instead when the blond craned her head to the right.

At that moment the store went completely silent to the point you could hear a pin drop. The sound of the thrown lantern clattering to the ground, Terra looked over her shoulder and gasped as she caught sight of the bright crimson stain going across the back of his now-white hair.

"Rrr… rrr…" the white-haired teen growled as he held the back of his head, blood dribbling down his chin. "RRRRRRRGHHHH!" he growled as he rose to full height. "You aimed for my head… You have to know, a blow like that can kill a guy, right?" he asked the guy standing behind him, droplets of blood beginning to pool onto the floor. "And this means you were intentionally trying to kill me… _right_?!" he growled as he turned around, the blood dribbling down the right side of his face, cutting a rather intimidating figure as his crimson eye narrowed at the guy. "So then whatever happens next…" he growled as he slowly walked forward, veins bulging in his face. "Is what you deserve, _right_?"

 _ ***BAM***_

A moment later and the guy was punched right in the face, sent halfway across the store, the clothing on his body flying in all directions before he hit the floor, left only in his tighty-whiteys, socks, and his left shoe. While the man was slumped against the wall, this did not sate Ventus' bloodlust, his vision clouded red from the blood dribbling into his better eye.

"You wanna hurt my friend, you've gotta get through MEEEEEEE!" Ventus roared as he grabbed a nearby four-wheeler and lifted it above his head, inspiring both awe _and_ terror in the store's occupants as he held the vehicle aloft, before chucking it at the first guy who looked even _remotely_ threatening towards Terra.

The guy had a trowel in his hand, so it was an honest mistake.

 _ ***TEEN TITANS***_

"And _that's_ how I was able to talk down the price on those camping supplies after that one guy tried to kill me in the other guy's store," Ventus replied without an ounce of shame in the Tower living room a half-hour later, looking no worse than he had when he had left.

"I… do not know how to respond to that," Robin said as he re-watched the store's security footage. From a purely objective standpoint, it kinda _did_ look like the guy was aiming straight for Ventus' head, since Terra was about a head shorter than him, and the lamp _did_ crack him in the back of the skull.

"So… What now?" Beast Boy asked.

"Now, we load up the T-Car, and then Terr and I will go out to the wastes and re-train our powers from square one," Ventus replied.

"But friend Ventus, why do _you_ need to re-train your aerokinetic abilit-"

 _ ***ACHOO!***_

A sudden typhoon of wind from Ventus' face overwhelmed Starfire and obscured her from view in a horizontal column of silvery ribbons of wind. By the time the wind had subsided, anything not bolted down to the floor in the general direction Ventus was facing had been scattered in all directions. Once everyone raised their eyes back up, the thinking and speaking ability of most in the room was completely destroyed when it was revealed that Ventus' sneeze had shredded Starfire's attire to ribbons, while leaving her body completely unscathed.

" . . . "

" . . . "

" . . . "

"And that would be _why_ ," Ventus said with a completely straight face as he rubbed the bottom of his nose, his eyes never once leaving Star's while others' eyes wandered. "My control… My control's kinda shot as well," he admitted. "Might be the brain damage."

' _GOD! FUCKING! DAMMIT!'_ the blond internally raged at lost opportunities.

" . . . Where have my clothes gone?" Starfire asked as she looked herself over, her motions causing her _attributes_ to bounce and jiggle, Terra slapping her hands over the ex-brunette's eyes.

 _ ***TEEN TITANS***_

"Well… _That_ was awkward," Cyborg said an hour later as the T-Car drove across the wastes outside Jump City. Ventus and Terra were sitting in the back seats, the far back folded down with the trunk loaded up with camping equipment, as well as other miscellaneous supplies to which the nature of Ventus didn't actively disclose. More than enough for an extended trip to the wilderness.

"Thank god Starfire was bulletproof, otherwise she could've been really hurt," Ventus replied.

"So you've noticed…" Terra said as she twitted her thumbs.

"So… What are you going to be doing out here exactly?" Cyborg asked as he put his eyes back on the road. Or lack thereof. Looking out the side of the window, he could see the spot they'd first met Terra, bringing back fonder memories. Of course, a whole plateau missing and a stone arch fallen were pretty eye-catching onto themselves.

Come to think of it, they never _did_ find out where that big monster came from.

They should _fix_ that.

"Training. Putting our noses to the grindstone. The whole nine yards," Ventus replied as he looked over his shoulder and mentally inventoried everything in the back.

"How long will we be out here?" Terra asked as she looked out the window, Jump City getting smaller and smaller in the distance, rocky crags dominating the horizon.

"Could be a week. Could be a month. Who knows?" Ventus replied with crossed arms.

"But we only packed food for a few days."

"Then we'll live off the fat of the land. There are streams nearby for fish, the forests offer plenty of bounty, springs for water. With _our_ powers it'll only take a couple minutes to get there and back."

" . . . Alright," Terra replied with a smile, happy that, for a time, it would just be Ven and her.

Out in the desert.

Alone.

Where nobody would bother them.

Alone.

Where she could do whatever she wanted to him in his sleep or awake.

 _Alone_.

' _Get a grip, girl! You're turning into one of those crazy_ Notice-Me-Sempai _girls!'_ the blone screamed to herself as she clapped her hands on her cheeks. _'Wait a minute… I tried to kill all his friends… Does that make me a_ Yandere _?!'_ she cried as she cupped her face in horror.

It seemed that the memories of opportunities lost were, ironically enough, forgotten as well.

"So where do you want me to drop you guys off?" Cyborg asked.

"Near that rocky upcropping over there," Ventus said pointing into the distance to a slightly smaller plateau. "We're going to need training materials, and I'd rather not uproot my entire campsite unless we can help it."

"Alright. Hang on," Cyborg said turning right, the T-Car rumbling before it pulled up alongside, pulling to a stop in the shadow of the upcropping at high noon. "You sure you'll be okay out here by yourselves?"

"Don't worry. The both of us have our T-Comms, and if worse comes to worse, we've always got this Plasma Flare," Ventus said holding up a futuristic-looking flare gun. According to Grey-Wing, the projectile it launched was visible all across the tri-state area.

And hypothetically it might accidentally blind spy satellites. But _that's_ what field-testing is for.

"That wasn't what I meant…" Cyborg said with a sigh, before realizing that Ventus was completely oblivious to the feelings of the girls around him.

"Or is he?" a third party asked as his chestplate opened up, revealing a familiar trans-dimensional entity.

"UWAAAAAAAGH!" the cyborg screamed at the face that suddenly appeared, his foot slamming on the gas and sending the T-Car screeching away, kicking up a huge cloud of dust that left Ventus and Terra covered head to toe.

"Well… _That_ was a thing," Terra shrugged, her eyes alight with a small amount of gold as she willed the earth off both of their bodies.

"Thanks for that," Ventus said as he checked himself for dust.

"Hey, don't worry about it. A little dust clean-up is the _least_ I can do."

"Starting small. I like it," the brunette said with a nod. "Alright, here's what we're going to do. While we're out here, we're basically going to level grind our powers until our skill level is brought back up to snuff. Once I'm confident in both of our ability to not crush our friends or send them flying away, then we can go back."

"I'm not in any huge rush or anything," Terra shrugged, stretching her back as she looked around. "Remember, I camped a _lot_ by myself before coming to Jump. It'll be nice getting back to my roots."

"That's the spirit," Ventus said with a smile. "Alright, first we'll set up our tent, and then after that we can start trai… trai… ai…" Raising his finger up to his nose, the ex-brunette let out a sigh as the sneeze was stopped. Only for it to come out a second later, Terra's vision awash with silver as she struggled to stay on her feet. Blinking her eyes, the girl looked down to herself to see that the majority of her clothing had been sneezed to ribbons, leaving her in only a conservative yellow bra and panties. "Um… Sorry about that," the now-blushing teen apologized.

"Hey now, it's alright if it's just _you_ ~" Terra said sending him a wink, posing with her arms behind her head. Just because he _forgot_ about his awakened libido, didn't mean she couldn't slowly coax it out of him, make their stay in the crags more… entertaining.

"Um… _Thank_ you," Ventus returned with a nod, handing his hoodie to her. "You uh… You get dressed, I'll see about getting our tent set up."

"Sure thing," Terra said with a smile as she watched him walk away. _'I wonder… Could I have an_ accident _that makes_ his _clothing go away?'_ she questioned herself before shaking her head. _'Nah, closest I could get is a sand-blast, and that isn't exactly people-friendly,'_ she thought, thinking back to all the times she'd walked into a sandstorm and was red for days. Suffice it to say, she'd learned to push away fine particulates of earth really quickly.

Feeling her power welling up inside of her, and seeing Ventus standing underneath some large rocks jutting from the formation overhead, the blond quickly exhaled, both her breath and energy leaving her body, the golden glow of her eyes dissipating.

' _Ven's right, though,'_ the blond thought to herself. _'Until I have my powers under control, the best place for us to be is here… Though maybe I should inch our tent a bit away from the rock face,'_ she said looking right up at it. Sure, it gave them some shade from the noon sun, but she'd rather be a little warm than crushed.

As she reached into her duffel bag and pulled out a spare set of clothes, the blond wondered-

' _I wonder how long I can walk around without pants on before he notices?'_ she thought to herself with a grin, wondering just how much it'd take to break through that oblivious wall that was always around him. _'Oh, Raven has_ got _to be hating this,'_ she chuckled to herself, realizing that for the first time in a long time, she really _did_ have Ven to herself.

Back at the Tower, Ventus had insisted that just the two of them go out into the crags, saying that Jump City needed as much help as it could get. He'd repeatedly assured them that he'd be alright on his own with her, and it was precisely because of the oblivious veneer he always wore, that the others were so-willing to let them go. Well, some moreso than others.

' _Of course, I should probably keep an eye out for Beast Boy,'_ the blond thought to herself as she looked around for any conspicuously-green fauna. Just because _Ven_ couldn't tell when a girl was crushing on him, apparently, doesn't mean _she_ couldn't tell. _'I just hope this thing with me and Ven doesn't push BB away,'_ she thought idly as she pulled up her shorts and ran over to the tent. She'd seen a _lot_ of sitcom episodes where that sort of thing didn't pan out well, and she didn't want to make it weird. "Hold up, let me help you with that!"

 _ ***TEEN TITANS***_

 **Author's Note:  
A little on the short side, but I figured since January's almost out and it's the new year, I should update before I fall too far behind. I've already discontinued ONE story (Swordless Shinobi), and I might discontinue another due to lack of motivation to continue, but here's a list of the stories that will NOT vanish into the night.**

 **(Giant-Slayter (RWBY)  
(Young Justice: The Hunter (Crysis & Young Justice)  
(Teen Titans: Two of Four Elements (Teen Titans, _obviously_ )  
(Mega Man ZXA: Rebirth Redux (Mega Man)  
(Jackie Chan Adventures: The Child of Prophecy (Jackie Chan Adventures & Naruto)  
(NarutoEXE: Subspace (Mega Man & Naruto)**

 **So… Yeah. The top two are my NEWEST, and most-thoroughly planned-out stories, thus they are INTENDED to be the longest-running stories I've ever made. So… If you're looking for a good read, maybe give them a look. Albeit, the top two are M-Rated for violence, sexual innuendo, etc. They're also a little "darker" than my Teen Titans story, as the quote/unquote _T_ _railer_ from last season showed.  
**

 **But yeah… I hope you like this update, and a Happy Chinese New Year.**

 **Only reason I brought** _ **that**_ **up is because I play Overwatch on the PS4, so if anyone wants to chat, just look up "NewMystery356" and you'll probably find me. Maybe.  
**


	6. Bitter Work

**Someone asked me to "pls" tie in this story with Young Justice. That won't happen for a number of reasons. First off,** **Teen Titans** **and** **Young Justice** **do not take place on the same Earth within the DC Multiverse.** **Teen Titans** **takes place on Earth-12, similar to shows like** **Batman the Animated Series** **,** **Superman the Animated Series** **,** **Justice League** **,** **Static Shock** **, and a few other titles.** **Young Justice** **takes place on Earth-16 and is thus completely separate.**

 **So no, incorporating** **Young Justice** **into this story isn't something that'll happen due to the sheer number of** _ **differences**_ **between the two Earths. I've seen many Authors TRY this very same thing, without taking these differences into account and thus they write themselves into corners and/or leave gaping plot holes.**

 **The reason I'm replying to that Review** _ **here**_ **is because it was a "From: Guest" Review and thus I have no other means to reply.**

 **With that "reply" out of the way, a small announcement to be made is that I've begun an account on Patr(e)on; the brackets around the** _ **E**_ **are because FanFiction dot Net has some kind of filter which prevents** _ **that**_ **specific word from being shown on-site without any kind of interruption. Patr(e)on funds will be put towards commissioning Cover Art and other Fan Art for my stories, the best example being the Cover Art for** **Giant-Slayer** **which at the same time highlights a pivotal moment in the story's narrative.**

 **Of course, I wouldn't ask for your patronage without giving something in return, so I've put some Patron-only content on my Patr(e)on Page; a sneak-preview of the next exciting chapter to tide my long-time readers over.**

 **As I explained in Chapter 39 of** **Giant-Slayer** **, I don't** _ **expect**_ **to make a ton of money through Patr(e)on, and I have no intention of holding my updates "hostage", but if even a** _ **fraction**_ **of the people who Follow my stories were to donate, I could commission some really cool Fan Art and maybe some new Cover Images for my stories. That on top of sneak previews seems like a pretty good value for $1 a month for the readers (with expendable income) who are always eager for more, wouldn't you say?**

 **That aside, here's the next update of** **Teen Titans: Two of Four Elements** **, I hope you enjoy it!**

 _ ***TEEN TITANS***_

Terra awoke the following morning, roused by sun's rays on her face filtered through the side of the tent. Stretching her arms out above her head and arching her back, the girl let out a rather loud jaw-cracking yawn, sleepily rubbing her eye. Rolling onto her side, a smile tugged at the girl's face as she caught sight of the person she was cohabitating with. The shock of stark-white hair was still a bit of a… _shock_ , to her, but she had to admit, with his new eye colors, the look actually suited him really well, his sun-tanned skin on top of that giving him a rather _exotic_ look.

He really _was_ too kind-hearted to be "ordinary", but now, he was _extraordinary._

"Morning, sleepyhead. C'mon. It's time for training," Terra said with a smile as she reached over and shook his shoulder. " . . . Hey Ven, c'mon, this isn't any time to be sleeping, wake up," she said shaking him more firmly, the ex-brunette rolling onto his back, head lolling towards her. "Ven…? Ven!?" she gaped as dark purple bruising on his neck and lifeless cloudy eyes came into view.

"Hello. Terra," a familiar, sickening voice said to her from over the ex-brunette's shoulder, a singular eye pinioning her with a mix of both mirth and malice.

"SLAAAAADE!"Terra shrieked as she jumped out of her sleeping bag, only to suddenly feel a hand on her shoulder, pinning her down against the floor.

 _ **"It's just a dream!"**_

"W-What?!" Terra gawped as Slade rose to full height, completely overshadowing her and blotting out the sun.

 _ **"** **It's just a dream, Terra! You need to wake up!"**_

"A-Aaagh!" the blond shrieked as her eyes snapped open. Instead of the sun's rays outside, the sky was still jet black, barely around sunrise, the sound of crickets and the wind meeting her ears. Also, instead of being laid out on the floor out of fear, the girl had gotten tangled in her sleeping bag, an arm and a leg punching through the zipper in her flailing. As for what was holding her down.

"Terra, Terra it's alright! It was just a dream! It was just a bad dream!" Ventus assured her, a worried look on his face.

"V… Ven…?" Terra asked as her eyes watered, gingerly reaching out to touch his face as though he might shatter at any moment.

"It's me, Terra, it's me, you're safe now," Ventus said putting a hand atop her own, wiping her tears with the other.

"It… it was so horrible…" Terra cried as she leapt out of her sleeping bag, openly sobbing into his shirt as she clutched onto him like a lifeline. "Slade… Slade was there, and _you_ … You were-"

"Shhhh, shshshshsh. It's okay Terr, it's over. You're alright. You're gonna be alright," Ventus cooed as he held the girl in his arms, gently rocking her back and forth.

"I… I know… But it felt so _real_ …" she sniffled, pressing her ear to his chest, the beating of his heart soothing music to her ears.

"A lot of dreams can seem real," Ventus said as he held her close. "Slade's gone. I made sure of that. You don't have to be scared of him anymore."

"Yeah… You're right," Terra sighed with a soft smile. "Thank you…" she said as she held him tighter. "Thank you for saving me."

"No thanks necessary. That's what friends are for," Ventus said with a smile. "Now c'mon. Let's get back to sleep. We've got another big day of training tomorrow, and we need to be well-rested," he said as he began to lay back down.

"Wait… Ven…?" she said as she began to look down in embarrassment.

"Yeah, Terr?"

"I… I wet myself…" she admitted, a fluorescent blush on her face.

"Oh? . . . _Oooooh_ … Oh," the ex-brunette stammered out. "Well…"

' _God_ dammit _Terra, now he thinks you're nothing but a disgusting_ pig _…'_ the blonde thought to herself.

"-now I don't feel so bad about all the times _I_ did that."

" . . . What?" the blond asked with wide eyes as she looked over to him.

"Yes. I'll admit it. I've wet myself out of sheer terror before too. And more than just once, as a matter of fact," the ex-brunette admitted. "I wasn't even _asleep_ for all of them."

"But… But you're _you_! How could _you_ be so scared you _literally_ wet yourself?" the blond asked in shock.

"Terra, I might come off as being really confident, and I am, but over-confidence is a flimsy shield," the ex-brunette admitted shamelessly. "As the person in the Teen Titans with the _smallest_ superhero background, I have a lot of insecurities, and those insecurities can sometimes lead to nightmares where the deaths of everyone I care for is all my fault, and that feeling of helplessness sometimes makes things messy. Both figuratively _and_ literally. Guess I should be glad everyone waits until the last possible second to do their laundry, otherwise the others would've caught on ages ago. God knows _Robin_ would never let me hear the end of it."

"And you're telling me this… why?"

"So you don't feel bad about wetting the bed in sheer terror from a Slade-induced nightmare like _I_ have."

"Oh… Thanks," Terra said with a small smile. "You're… You're a good friend."

"No problem. Now c'mon. Let's go back to bed."

"Um… Ven?"

"Oh. Right. Your sleeping bag," the ex-brunette realized. "Well, you can use my bag. I'll just lay on the spare blanket, and then we can give yours a soak in the river tomorrow. The desert sun should dry it out by bedtime."

"Ooor we could… I dunno… sleep in it _together_?"

"Well, _sure_ , but it might be a tight squeeze," Ventus shrugged

" _Oh you bet your sweet_ ass _it is_. _"_

"What?"

"Nothing!" said covering her mouth with a red face. "But uh… first thing's first, I need you to turn around."

"Why?"

"Well, um… I kinda need to-"

"Oh my god, I'm just _joking_. I know you need to change your panties. I'm not a _total_ ignoramus," the brunette said as he got back into the bag and turned his back to her.

"You're lucky you're cute."

" _What_ was that?" Ventus asked in a salty tone.

"Nothiiing!" the blond squealed.

 _ ***TEEN TITANS***_

"Hrrrmmm…" Raven grumbled from behind her book.

"Friend Raven, is something the matter?" Starfire asked as the two of them looked out on the bay together, the both of them in their PJs. Starfire was wearing a _hyper_ -conservative purple nightgown that went down to her knees and left almost _everything_ to the imagination, while Raven wore a tighter-fitting purple T-shirt and matching PJ bottoms with little black skulls on them.

"Just wondering if letting Vent and Terra be out in the wilderness on their own is such a good idea," the mage answered.

"Well, why do you not go and check up on them? With your magic teleportation, you would be able to go there and back instantaneously."

"Vent is still a little… _sore_ with me about what I did to him, and I didn't exactly send him off with a _smile_ or anything," the mage answer. "He is _really_ eager to take Terra's side in all this, but given Slade was pumping her full of _drugs_ the whole time, it's kinda hard to deny him his right to do that."

"If you wish, _I_ can go and check on them for you," Starfire offered.

"That would be appreciated," Raven said with a nod.

"Is there anything in particular I should be wary of?"

"Just be sure they aren't doing anything… _inappropriate_ ," the mage bit out. Being she _was_ an empath, and she could read emotions, she could practically _taste_ the sexual tension between the two of them.

Of course, just because the two of them _complemented_ each other very well, didn't mean she had to _like_ it.

"Nothing inappropriate between the two of them. I will be on the looking out," Starfire said with a nod as she flew out the window.

"Good thing those automatically _open_ now," the mage said relaxing back into her book. One time Cyborg did _too_ good a job of buffing out the glass, and Starfire flew _through_ it thinking it was open.

It took a _ton_ of birds smashing themselves into the self-cleaning windows before the city would shell out for ultrasonic bird deterrents.

 _ ***TEEN TITANS***_

In the dusty wastes outside Jump City, without the light pollution from the nearby city, the stars in the sky shone through clearly and brilliantly. Among those stars was a green comet streaking through the sky, and within it, a certain red-haired alien princess in _super_ -conservative purple pajamas.

T-Comm. in hand, the girl followed the directional bearing indicator towards the location of the one Ventus had taken with him. While he had disabled the tracking for all the _other_ T-Comms, especially Robin's, the aerokinetic had been kind enough to establish a dedicated link to Starfire so her, if anyone, could find him if the need arose.

That's why it was easy for her to find the two element-manipulators' tent out in the middle of nowhere. There were a number of small metallic objects scattered about in the dirt, a myriad of red lights going off at Starfire's approach causing the girl to nearly jump out of her skin. A beeping noise coming from her T-Comm., she flipped it open to see red text labeled **PROXIMITY WARNING** , which then turned green as did the lights on the ground.

Nodding her head as the girl realized Ventus and Terra weren't completely defenseless as they slept, the alien girl lightly hovered towards the innocuous-looking tent. Grabbing the tab of the zipper, the alien girl slid it open with a deft touch, spotting one of the sleeping bags folded up in the corner, while in the other, she was greeted by a sight that would've turned anyone apart from her red in the face.

Ventus and Terra were currently occupying the remaining sleeping bag together, flap wide open from the extra heat the two bodies generated. Ventus was laid out on his back, lightly snoring away with arms spread eagle, clad in sky blue pajama pants and a white T-shirt. Terra was lightly snoring as well, clad in a light yellow T-shirt and straddling the ex-brunette's right leg, her pajama pants kicked down to one ankle revealing yellow panties. If the panty shot by itself wasn't shocking enough, the blond was laying her head into the crook of Ventus' neck and kissing at it in her sleep, her right hand interlaced with his left, while her own left hand had snaked its way under the teen's shirt and splayed across his muscular chest.

Now, to anyone else, the way in which Ventus and Terra were cuddling with wandering hands would _definitely_ be considered "inappropriate". However, for someone like Starfire, whose homeworld had _everyday conduct_ eerily similar to this, what was going on was _not_ considered "inappropriate", and thus, Starfire thought nothing was out of place, simply nodding her head with a smile on her face before silently heading back to the tower, not wishing to wake her friends.

Raven would later, in hindsight, realize that Starfire wasn't the _best_ at gauging what was, or was not, "inappropriate" by Earth standards.

 _ ***TEEN TITANS***_

The following morning things played out like usual, albeit, it was much quieter. Starfire was still somber that two of her good friends were not present, and Raven had withdrawn largely into herself. The whole thing with Terra still weighed heavily on their minds, Beast Boy and Cyborg's thoughts all over the place while Robin looked like he was about to bust a gasket.

Breakfast itself was also ordinary-enough, though with two fewer mouths to feed and Ventus and Terra's departure still so fresh on their minds they wound up having leftovers. The sun rose and there was little incident from town, so with some much-needed free time, the Titans that remained chose to use a room that had seen seldom use for the past few weeks.

"Yo Beast Boy, you almost done up there?" Cyborg called out from the middle of the expansive room.

"I'll be done in a minute. I'm almost done programming the simulation now."

"I didn't know Beast Boy had that kind of _skill_ as a programmer," Robin shrugged.

"Dr. Slim is probably doing most of the work," Cyborg state. "BB can't even program a VCR player, let alone a hard-light combat simulation room."

"That would be a correct assumption," the room's AI stated.

"Yeah, that figures," Cyborg said.

"Yo dudes, I'm done!" Beast Boy said running out into the room as the LED's began to flare up, a swirling tornado of lights spinning around the three of them as they trained. "By the way, where's the others?"

"Raven's powers would rip the room to shreds and Starfire's out on patrol," Robin answered as an all-white floor and walls began to form around them.

"Grey-Wing's doing some work on her bus in the garage, and Jadework is… well, I don't know _where_ the guy is," Cyborg said with a shrug as large pipes and a massive gate began to form as well, completing the stage. Moments later, skin-and-bones white Homonculus Soldiers began to pour out of the gates like something out of Left 4 Dead.

"Beast Boy, did you _seriously_ use one of your Japanese cartoons as the basis for this exercise?" Robin asked as he cracked one over the head with his staff.

"They're not cartoons! They're-"

"Not the _time_ Beast Boy!" Cyborg raged as the Dolls began to swarm him. Off to the side, Beast Boy had turned into a Gorilla and sent them flying with powerful arm swipes.

"Du-hude! Who knew training could be so much _fun_?" Beast Boy asked changing back as he observed his handiwork.

"Training isn't supposed to be _fun_! It's a very serious commitment!" Robin growled as he whacked one upside the head with his staff.

 _ ***TEEN TITANS***_

Meanwhile back at the crags outside Jump City, the two elemental manipulators of the Teen Titans made good on their promise and began to put their noses to the grindstone. At the very start, the two began their practice by manipulating the very _smallest_ amount of their respective elements they could, so as to hone their fine-control. For Ventus, a tiny sliver of wind barely strong enough to spin a pinwheel. For Terra, it was a pebble… before her eyes flashed gold and she caused a landslide that almost smothered their campsite.

Suffice it to say, the two of them moved their practice _far_ from their campsite.

As the two regained the _feel_ of their powers, and what it was like to control it in small amounts without losing control of it, they slowly began to increase the scope of the power they displayed. The best part about training out in the middle of the nowhere away from everyone was that even if their powers spiraled beyond their ability to control, no one would be around for miles to get hurt. Until the two of them were abso _lutely_ sure they had their powers 100% under control, they simply couldn't _risk_ returning to a heavily-populated area like Jump City; lest they run the chance of a tornado, or an earthquake, or god forbid _both_ , from wreaking havoc and killing hundreds if not _thousands_ of innocent bystander.

In a way, Robin was _right_ to be paranoid about the two of them. The scope of what their powers could _influence_ was just so great, that if used incorrectly they could potentially level an entire _city_ or rip it out of the ground.

Based on Terra's recollection of Slade's training, the control she displayed back when she was their enemy largely boiled down to practice, practice, _practice._ That and a lot of confidence because if you didn't believe in _yourself_ , then you'd already lost. When it came to superpowers, even if you were a world-class weight-lifter, it didn't mean jack squat if you didn't have the _brainpower_ to reel yourself, and your _power_ , in line.

That's why close to a week into their re-training, Ventus said something to Terra that threw the girl _completely_ for a loop.

"Alright Terra, that's enough practice for the day."

"Why? Usually the sun's a lot lower in the sky when we stop."

"Oh… I had something _special_ planned for tonight, and you'll need all the energy you can get," he said waggling his eyebrows at her.

"Uh… _*Gulp* Special_?" the blond asked.

"Yep. _Really_ special," he said walking off, a spring in his step.

" . . . Hoo boy…" Terra said tugging at her collar, fanning herself with a blush as an ear-to-ear grin pulled at her features. "I NEED TO GET CLEAN!" she said running off to the river. With all the dust she was caked in she could be mistaken for Pig-Pen from the Peanuts.

 _ ***TEEN TITANS***_

' _When Ven said he had something_ special _planned for me tonight and I was going to need my_ energy _… I had something completely different in mind,'_ Terra thought to herself that evening as she sat on the ex-brunette's sleeping bag on their tent.

When the blond returned to their campsite after a good long scrub, her hair silky smooth and _every_ part of her body squeaky clean, she had _expected_ something romantic like candles, or maybe flowers waiting for her. Turns out she read a little too deeply into things because when she _got_ there she found out that they were going to be binge-watching episodes of Avatar: The Last Airbender, and not… what she had _thought_ he meant. That's why, when he handed her a garment bag and told her to put the contents on, she knew not to expect a skimpy maid outfit for a little master/maidservant foreplay like in _her_ perverse fantasies.

While not skimpy, the clothes were _definitely_ those from a costume store of sorts. Terra was now clad in a dark green tunic and shin-length pants with a pale yellow vest atop it, black and green bangles with yellow trim around her wrists and ankles, a yellow-and-green hair barrette with puffy balls of cotton on both ends in her hair. Ventus on the other hand was clad in yellow robes and an orange shawl, brown shin-length pointed-toed boots on his feet, orange bands around his elbows, wrists, and waist.

' _It is_ really _weird to be watching someone in monk clothing set up a DVD player and holographic television,'_ the blond thought as her friend made his final adjustments.

"So… _Why_ am I going to be imitating this girl again?" Terra asked looking at the girl she was dressed as on the DVD cover.

"Mimicry is how I learned to 'sculpt' my Aerokinesis into forms I normally couldn't make through _conventional_ methods of thinking," Ventus answered as he tapped the side of his head. "Toph Beifong is a _master_ Earthbender, and if you can learn to mimic her movements, some of that skill might transfer over to you. The lag between _your_ action and the Earth's _reaction_ should be slimmed down quite a bit if you manage to make these techniques work."

"Oh, you mean like how you use DBZ moves like 'templates' for your power?" Terra asked.

"Exactly that."

"Huh… Yeah, I guess I can see that working out," the blond admitted. "Even if this isn't how I _thought_ the evening would play out… this seems like it'll be good fun, just you and me, watching movies like _ordinary_ teenagers."

"Oh believe me… You're one-of-a-kind," Ventus said with a big smile on his face. "I'm curious though… how did you _think_ this evening would play out?"

"Uhhhhhhhhh…" Terra stammered out, red in the face as her longtime friend looked up at her with wide innocent heterochromatic eyes. "Well…"

"Yes?" he asked with a tilt of his head.

' _How the hell could a_ guy _look so cute and innocent?!'_ the blond cried to herself as the aerokinetic pinioned her with a gaze that could make _supervillains_ wilt.

 _ ***TEEN TITANS***_

" . . . You don't think anything _inappropriate_ is happening between Vent and Terra right now, do you?" Raven asked Starfire the following morning.

"I do not believe so, no," Starfire replied with a shake of her head.

Remember when I said that Raven would later realize that Starfire wasn't the _best_ at gauging what was or was _not_ "inappropriate" by Earth standards?

This was not that time.

 _ ***TEEN TITANS***_

"What do you think the _others_ are up to?" Terra asked as she practiced Toph's Praying Mantis style martial arts movements, hands aglow as she expressed the smallest iota of power possible. For her, doing so was like trying to fight a valve that wanted to loosen _itself_.

"No idea. They haven't called for reinforcements, so I don't think it's anything they need _us_ for," Ventus returned, his movements that of the Baquazhang style of martial arts, his hands aglow as well.

"You know, it's weird, but I think this is actually _helping_ ," Terra realized as her foot slid across the ground. "I can't believe being barefoot actually _helps_ with this," she said as she wiggled her toes.

"Yes, well, don't get too used to it. Out _here_ there's nothing but dirt and rocks, but back _there_ you've got crap like broken glass, and used needles, and sometimes _literal_ crap on the ground," he said pointing back to Jump in the distance. "I mean, maybe we could get you some thin-soled shoes, but _not_ barefoot. I don't want you hurting yourself or anything."

"Right," Terra said with a nod, pulling a bandana from her pocket before she put it over her eyes, tying a knot at the back only for it to fall over her nose. "Ah… Dangit," she bit out as she tried again.

"Here, let me help with that," Ventus said walking over to her, taking the ends of the bandana from her hands and secured it in a knot at the base of her skull. "There. How's that?" he asked as he brushed some hair out of her face.

"T-Thanks," Terre replied, a blush creeping across her face.

"You're starting to look a little red. Want me to get you some water?"

"No… I'm fine right here," the blond said as she wrapped her arms around his waist and nuzzled her face into his chest, the ex-brunette going wide-eyed for a moment before reciprocating the gesture.

"Terra… I'm sorry."

"There you go again, apologizing for something you didn't do," she said tightening her grip on him. "It doesn't matter what you did or didn't do. The important thing is that you're here _now_."

Were this animated, this would've been the part where the background went all-black, a white streak of light shot across the screen, and Terra's eyes went completely wide.

"What is it, Terr?"

"I feel something…" Terra said shifting the sole of her foot in the dirt. " . . . Something's coming."

"What's coming?" Ventus asked as he looked around.

"I don't know… but it's big… Very… _very_ big…" she said feeling the reverberations running up her leg. Raising her foot, the girl scrunched her eyes in concentration as it glowed gold before she slammed it into the ground, the world around her going dark as ripples went out through the ground. The ripples in the ground extending far beyond the range of her ordinary senses, everything from the bugs in the ground to the lizards on the rocks gave off tiny "pings" on her sonar. However, the shape that was lumbering _towards_ them she recognized just by the _feel_ of it alone. "Oh no…"

 _ ***TEEN TITANS***_

 **Earlier that same day…**

"Team! Trouble!" Robin called out over the PA, drawing everyone into the Ops Center to see the spiky-haired teen rapidly shuffling through reports being forwarded to him.

"What's happening?" Raven asked.

"We've got a massive influx of monster sightings from all over town," Robin said as he furiously typed on the keyboard.

"Man, if this is another one of those _Bigfoot_ things again-" Cyborg grumbled, Robin pressing a key and causing all the reports on the screen to move to the edge as a large photo dominated the center of attention. The image was blurry and out-of-focus, and the splotch of dark red was only _vaguely_ humanoid, but the intermittent splashes of toxic green, electric blue, and slate gray made the subject's identity unmistakable.

"Plasmus…" Beast Boy grumbled, remembering the horrid taste in his mouth from the last time they'd clashed.

"Technically it's _Ternion_ , but I get the sentiment," Raven re-iterated.

"So it's finally come out of hiding, huh?" Grey-Wing asked coming up to them. "I was _trying_ to elaborate where that thing's been holed up all this time, but because of the viscous nature of its body-type, I could never really rule anywhere _out_ as a potential hiding spot because it could squeeze through sewage pipes like an overgrown rat."

"Friends Ventus and Terra are still out with their re-training. Should we not call them back to Jump City?" Starfire questioned.

"No. If Terra's control slips in the middle of a fight, she could prove to be a liability," Robin argued.

"Yeah, and last thing we need is another _wardrobe malfunction_ ," Cyborg added.

"My clothes were functioning perfectly normally before. What was the malfunction?" Starfire asked, the adorable tilt of her head one that would cause the members of her fanclub to _literally_ melt.

"A-Anyway…" Robin blushed. "We'll only call them if absolutely necessary. In the long-term, it'll be better for them to complete their training uninterrupted. For the time being, the seven of us will go after Ternion."

"Make that five," Grey-Wing interrupted. "The way it is now, nothing at the maximum-security prison will be able to _hold_ Ternion, so we need to break it down into its composite parts."

"Why are _two_ of us staying behind? Who's the second?" Cyborg asked.

"Raven," Grey-Wing answered. "While I work on a Chimeric Destabilizer, it'll be up to you, Robin, Beast Boy, Starfire, and Jadework to keep Ternion occupied. Meanwhile, I'm going to need Raven's teleportation power to get me cross the city in an instant the moment my weapon reaches completion."

"And you're _sure_ we can't just capture Ternion as he is now?" Beast Boy asked.

"Unless Jump City has a high-tech prison cell resistant to acid, energy, _and_ brute force, the only way we can contain him in the long run is to weaken him. Plus, Ternion on his _own_ is too large for any of the anti-villain cells to contain," Grey-Wing answered.

"So then we _literally_ need to cut him down to size," Cyborg said cracking his knuckles.

"Alright. We'll try to keep Ternion preoccupied for as long as we can, but how long will it take to make his anti-Ternion weapon of yours?" Robin asked.

"I'm running the calculations right now. Between the G-Comet and Cy's lab, there should be enough spare parts for me to whip _something_ together. However, without extensive testing, the highest success rate I can project right _now_ is a success rate of sixty-five percent," Grey-Wing argued as she began to head out the room. "Send me chemical, material, and energenic readings on Ternion's base components and I'll be able to raise the success rate of my Destabilizer. Until then, this is mostly guesswork. Adding Ventus and Terra to the mix would only raise the collateral damage."

"Alright. We have a plan," Robin said running his hands across his belt. "Titans, go!"

 _ ***TEEN TITANS***_

 **One T-Car ride later…**

" _Why_ did we leave Raven at the tower again?" Cyborg asked as he deflected an electrified slime tendril with his sonic cannon. Any and all civilians in the area, in the wake of Slade's invasion, had the common sense to run like bats out of hell once Ternion first revealed itself.

If anything _good_ had come with Slade's militant occupation of the city, it was that people were now _aware_ of the dangers of rubber-necking.

"Grey-Wing needed an assistant to finish her weapon, and we needed to leave someone behind without leaving behind too much of our stopping power," Robin answered as he twirled his staff, deflecting a deluge of acid away from himself before Jadework leapt overhead and flung shards into Ternion's "eyes".

"And why can't _I_ be the assistant?" Beast Boy asked, since Plasmus was one of his least-favorite enemies to fight.

"We needed someone who was _actually_ tech-savvy," Cyborg deadpanned.

"Oh! So _that_ is why Beast Boy was not left behind!" Starfire realized, firing a barrage of starbolts forcing Ternion backward.

"What's _that_ supposed to meOOF!" Beast Boy griped before he was winded by a concrete fist.

"Grey-Wing! Status report!" Robin shouted into his T-Comm. as he outran bolts of lighting Ternion _literally_ regurgitated at him.

"I'm doing some last-minute adjustments, but Jadework still needs to send me an analysis of Cinderblock's mineral composite."

"When'd you have time to get _samples_?!" Robin asked realizing the ninja had already gotten two. "No. You know what. I don't need to know. What's taking so long with the _last_ sample!?"

"I'm not strong-enough to break any of it away on my own! Why don't _you_ try?!" the ninja shouted as he leapt over a tendril sweep that turned a nearby car into scrap metal.

"Titans, fall back! Cyborg, on me!" Robin said drawing an exploding disc from his belt. The cyborg nodding his head, Robin let the projectile fly towards Ternion's left shoulder before his teammate blasted it, the resulting explosion sending sludge and cement flying, Jadework swooping in and grabbing a shard before slotting it into hit T-Comm. "Grey-Wing, we just got you that last sample! How's that analysis coming?"

"I'm having your tower's AI do the necessary calculations. It should be done shortly."

" _How_ shortly?!" Beast Boy cried as he was flailed about on the end of a tentacle.

"Do you want it done 'fast' or do you want it done 'right'? Take your pick," the genius growled.

" _Right_! Do it _right_!" Beast Boy cried before he turned into a hummingbird and flew out of Ternion's grip, a cluster of Starbolts impacting the chimera's face and sending it reeling.

"We could really use a _hand_ right now!" Cyborg yelled as he switched to his left Sonic Cannon, not wanting the right to completely overheat. He was lucky that firing both at the same time didn't make him explode like _Mega Man_.

Then, as though to answer his prayers, a massive jet-black hand with clawed digits began to rise out of the ground, and out from the palm jumped a familiar red-headed genius, the indigo-haired mage flowing out behind her.

"Have no fear, a _genius_ is here!" Grey-Wing proudly declared with her hands on her hips, a large weapon strapped to her back as she posed dramatically.

"Why do you have a Ghostbusters Proton Pack?" Beast Boy asked with a raised brow as he looked at the weapon on the girl's back.

"My Chimeric Destabilizer happening to look _just_ like this in the end was purely coincidence," the genius replied as she pulled the beam-projector from over her shoulder.

"I didn't say it wasn't _cool_ , cause it totally is," Beast Boy replied.

"Good, cause I'm not re-designing this," she said powering it up, the turbines spooling with a mechanical _***BREEEEEEEN***_. "Fire in the hole!" she shouted as she fired a multi-colored beam, the condensed column of energy waggling through the air until it struck Ternion in the S-shaped emblem on its chest, the energy splashing across the emblem in multiple direction. The chimera briefly stumbled back in shock, but when it saw nothing was going on, it made its way towards the red-head.

"Keep it off of her!" Starfire shouted as she fired her eyebeams at Ternion, the creature shielding itself with its arm as it pushed forward, only for Cyborg to blast it in the torso forcing it away.

"Where's the Ghost Trap?!" Beast Boy cried as he hovered around the girl's back, looking for the secondary component of Egon Spengler's ghost-catching mechanism.

"Ternion isn't _made_ of ectoplasm! There wasn't any need to _make_ a Muon Trap-equivalent!" the girl argued.

"Then why's it taking so long?!" the changeling cried.

"It's like Luigi's Mansion! You just need to keep the stream up and it'll do its thing!" Grey-Wing replied.

"Then let's pour everything we've got into it! We've only got one shot at this!" Robin shouted as he began pelting Ternion with exploding and ice discs. Starfire fired ultraviolet energy bolts on every part of Ternion's body, Raven willing countless "Shadowbolts" to strike Ternion's blindspot from behind, while Cyborg sent out a constant barrage of Sonic "Charge Shots". Jadework began flinging kunai with gunpowder bombs attached, and Beast Boy, having no means of projectile attacking, began to rip out anything not too-securely bolted to the ground and proceeded chuck it at Ternion wherever it wasn't already getting hit.

A full minute later, the energy beam that had splashed around Ternion's chest suddenly connected on the other side of its body at its back, veins of multi-colored energy beginning to glow from inside the chimera's body in all directions. Electrified and concrete elements beginning to be energized on different frequencies from Plasmus' base material, the differing elements began to get pulled toward Plasmus' center, the creature beginning to swell like a monster-shaped balloon as entire limbs made of energy or concrete began to push out of it like something from Alien.

"It's gonna blow!" Beast Boy screamed as the sludge creature neared the point of popping like a monster-shaped _blister_.

"Move!" Cyborg screamed as he scooped Grey-Wing into his arms and activated the rockets in his calves and shoulders.

"Hit the deck!" Robin cried as Starfire grabbed him by the armpits and flew off, Raven dragging Beast Boy and Jadework into the shadows moments before Ternion reached critical mass, the amalgamic monster screeching bloody murder before it violently exploded in all directions, waves of energy kicking up dust from the ground and bowling cars over like dominos, chunks of the asphalt at its feet and slime flying in all directions.

Slowly, the dust began to settle, the Titans beginning to come out of their respective hiding spots. The majority weren't any worse for wear, Raven's group being the best-off while Cyborg shielded Grey-Wing with his body. Suffice it to say, after the Titan-Killer attack, he'd begun to fortify his vital components like there was no tomorrow. Plenty of battleship-grade alien alloys left over to do the job after all.

"Roll call, is everyone alright?" Robin asked.

"I am fine," Starfire said.

"We're okay," Beast Boy sighed.

"I am without harm," Jadework affirmed.

"Ditto," Raven said noncommittally.

"I'm okay," Grey-Wing sighed as she let her Chimeric Destabilizer fall from her back.

"I'm a little banged up, but I'm sure I can buff it right out," Cyborg sighed as he plucked a piece of shrapnel from his shoulder.

"Alright then, let me assess the damage," Beast Boy said in a moment of maturity. "Okay… We've got Plasmus pulling a Majin Buu…" he said as globules of dark burgundy slime began to coalesce. "Overload's making a break for it through some powerlines…" he said as visible arcs of white and blue electricity began to zip into the distance. "And Cinderblock is absolutely nowhere to be found."

"WHY IS HE NOWHERE TO BE FOUND?!" Robin shrieked.

 _ ***TEEN TITANS***_

 **Back in the present…**

"I don't like the sound of that _oh no_ ," Ventus shrugged as he limbered up, getting ready for battle. "Robin! What the hell's going on?" he shouted into his T-Comm.

"We split Ternion back into his base components, but we've lost track of Cinderblock," Robin answered.

"How the hell do you lose track of something as big as _Cinderblock_?" Terra gawped.

"I'll save you the trouble by saying _he's coming right towards us_!" the ex-brunette shouted as the unmistakable shape of Cinderblock began to become clear.

"Why's he heading our way?" Terra asked.

"Coincidence, or maybe he's pissed you used him as a mode of transportation. Either/or," Ventus shrugged.

"We're still trying to contain Plasmus and Overload, but they're going on a mindless rampage so pinning them down is getting kind of difficult. Do you need backup?" Raven asked.

"You guys worry about the city, Terra and I got this. OH! And bring by some provisions once you're done since you're making us work during out vacation. Bye!" the ex-brunette said before hanging up, leaving no room for argument.

"We _do_?" the blond gawped, in response to him saying they "got this".

"Yeah, we do," Ventus nodded before pocketing his comm device. "Alright, Terr. You ready for this?"

"I don't know… It hasn't even been a week yet. What if I mess up?" Terra asked worriedly as she wringed her hands.

"Well, that's part of why we came out to the middle of nowhere. So that even if you _do_ mess up, there won't be anyone to hurt, and no buildings to knock down."

"Gee, thanks for the _pep_ talk," the blond huffed.

"Look, if _you_ think you're going to mess up, then you've already lost. Why do you think we binge watched so much Avatar?"

"You wanted an excuse to play _dressup_?"

"Because if you watched a blind prepubescent earthbender kick ass and take names, maybe some of that confidence would rub off on you," the aerokinetic deadpanned.

"Well…" Terra muttered as she looked off into the distance. "At least Cinderblock has all the speed of a brick _house_."

"If we pulled a _Home Alone_ on our camp site, would that make you feel better?"

"I'd rather not level our campsite in case we need more time to ourselves-I mean for training!" the blond quickly corrected. "Yeah… more time for training…" she trailed off with a blush on her face.

"Well, then we're going to need to choose our battleground. We've got lots of space, take your pick," Ventus said gesturing to the desert around him.

"You want _me_ to pick?"

"Terra, I get that after what happened with Slade, and that crazy daughter of his that you're on the bottom of the totem pole for a while, but there are going to be times where you'll _have_ to take the lead because you can see things in a way no-one else can," Ventus asserted. "Cinderblock is _made_ of earth, you've worked alongside him and know what his strengths are, and craggy areas like this have been your backyard for as long as I can remember, so the best person to take the lead in this fight… That person is _you_. Don't let what happened drag you down, rise _above_ it and become the hero I _know_ you are."

" . . . Alright. I've got a plan," Terra said resolutely after a few moments.

 _ ***TEEN TITANS***_

Rage. That was all Cinderblock felt.

He didn't remember what came before his first memories, if he even _was_ a "he" at all, or if there even _was_ anything before his first memories. All he could remember was rage, and the primal desire to survive that burned inside all living things.

When Cinderblock had first allied himself with Slade, it was merely for an arrangement of mutual benefit. Slade needed extra muscle to move the mountains he could not, and Cinderblock needed a place to rest between fights. When he was defeated by the Teen Titans, the rage he felt wasn't because of some perceived and arbitrary notion like _age_ , merely the feeling of _defeat_ , and subjugation that came afterwards.

Imprisonment didn't hold the same meaning for Cinderblock that it did for creatures of flesh and bone. To him, it was only another place to rest, and to wait, the passage of time almost meaningless for a being such as he. But then Slade had taken control of him, wrenching away his free will, the only thing that was truly his own, and he was _enraged,_ a rage that was all-consuming that he could never express.

And then he was forcibly merged with Overload, and Plasmus, and his anger rose to unprecedented levels. The feeling of his body breaking apart, as he was _absorbed_ into someone, some _thing_ else, was a pain that no living being should ever have to experience. The feeling of his mind ebbing away, until barely an echo of himself remained, was even worse.

And then he was broken apart, and Cinderblock knew freedom once more.

Slade was gone. He didn't know _how_ he knew, only _that_ he knew. If he were _human_ he'd say he felt it down in his bones, but he wasn't, and he didn't. It was only some kind of baser instinct that told him so.

Slade was gone, and the man's progeny never wronged him, so there was only one person left he could vent his rage on. The girl with the golden hair, the unwitting puppet who broke away in the end. The unwitting puppet that still lived by the good graces of another.

The girl, Terra, was all that remained to connect him to that violating feeling he'd once felt, and endured, and he _would_ have his revenge, if only to quell some semblance of burning hatred deep down inside. And somehow, that hatred guided him towards her, away from the city and the people towards the rocks, and the sand.

His feet thundering across the ground, kicking up a wake of dust, the blond's presence was growing stronger with each passing moment. His fists angrily clenching, chips of concrete breaking free, nonexistent teeth gnashed as anger swelled inside of him.

And then suddenly a golden-glowing rock struck him in the side of the head, drawing his musings back to reality.

 _ ***TEEN TITANS***_

"Over here, blockhead!" Terra shouted.

"Blockhead? _Really_?" Ventus asked with a flat expression.

"What? His name's Cinder _block_ , so I'm calling him _Blockhead_."

"Well, _yeah_ , but that's a little too _on-the-nose_. Personally, I would've gone with _Rocky_ , like the boxer."

"Have you even _seen_ the Rocky movies?"

"Terra, I think what you need to be worried about right now is that Cinderblock looks _really_ pissed!" the ex-brunette said pointing to Cinderblock, barreling straight towards Terra while completely ignoring him.

"Ohcraphe'sfast!" the blond yelped as she pulled a shell of earth around her body, the concrete-borne villain shoulder checking her and sending the blond flying into the distance.

"Terra!" the ex-brunette cried before turning his attention to Cinderblock, the villain completely ignoring him in favor of the blond. "Hey _Rocky_ , I'm here _too_ you know!" he growled as he held his hands in front of himself, compressing layer upon layer upon layer of air into the space between his hands, the bubble of energized oxygen glowing brightly in his hands like a _ki_ attack out of Dragonball Z. "Ursus Shock!" he roared as he thrust his arms out, the sphere of air shooting towards Cinderblock's back before suddenly expanding to its fullest size. The pressure wave hitting the rock monster with the force of a nuclear freight train, Cinderblock was blasted into the air, tumbling across the ground well away from the recovering blond before coming to a stop, a large crater now in the small of his back with numerous fissures running up and down the span of his body. "Yeah! That'll teach you to turn your back on me!" he whooped.

 **"GRRAWR!"** Cinderblock growled, angrily slamming a fist into the ground before rounding on him. Raising his arms above his head before slamming them down like the Incredible Hulk, a massive localized quake tore through the ground towards Ventus, the teen molding a ball of air into his hands before hopping atop it and zooming away even as the earth at his feet was torn asunder. The raging concrete monster slamming fist after fist into the ground, lines of ruptured earth tore towards the air-wielding teen, each one growing closer and closer to their target.

"Hey, don't you know it's rude to ignore a _lady_!" Terra said riding in on a wave of earth, forming a massive stone gauntlet atop her arm before she leapt up and clocked Cinderblock across the face, freeing up Ventus' own attention.

"Whoo! That's the way! You go girl!" the aerokinetic cheered as he continued to strafe Cinderblock. However, the sound of the white-haired teen, whose vibe had become similar to _that man_ , only further infuriated the rock monster. Raising his arms above his head, Cinderblock delivered a devastating axe handle to the ground kicking up a radial wave that made the ground ripple like water before breaking at the crest. Caught off-guard, Vincent was struck bodily in the chest by a wave of dirt and sent soaring against a nearby rock formation back-first, tumbling to the ground. Raising himself up on a shaky arm, Cinderblock ran sidelong and grabbed a nearby rock, before whirling around like a Shot Put and sent it into the rock formation above the ex-brunette's head, a loud _***THUD***_ ringing through the air as a miniature avalanche smothered the aerokinetic teen.

"VINCENT!" Terra shrieked. However, two glints of silver shone from within the dust cloud before an errant gust of wind swept it away, revealing that Ventus had not been flattened by the earth, but that he was instead only partially-buried, the rocks falling _around_ him in such a way that he was shielded from those above him, only the upper half of his body from his armpits up visible.

"I'm alright! My leg's pinned, but nothing's broken!" he reassured her after trying to free himself.

"Hold on! I'll get you out of there!" Terra said as her eyes shone golden, the glow beginning to extend to her fingertips.

"DUCK!"

It was a testament to Terra's trust in him that the blond ducked the moment those words left his lips without a moment's hesitation, a massive concrete haymaker passing through the air above her moments later at hair-whipping speeds. A cold shudder ran down her body as she realized, had she remained upright, that hit very well would've shattered every bone in her body.

"Terra, forget about me! Worry about yourself!"

 **"GRRAAAAH!"** Cinderblock roared as he slammed his fist into the ground before raising it in an uppercut, kicking up a massive cloud of dust.

"Agh! My eyes!" Terra cried as the dust made her eyes clamp shut.

"Terra! Block!"

Terra once again followed her friend's cue without a second thought, raising pillars of earth in front of her and slowing down the haymaker that came from her right. The moment the first pillar began to break the blond threw herself to the ground under the debris sent at her, Cinderblock growling angrily as he shoved the earthen pillars out of his way, stomping towards her. The blond scrambled to her feet, running away from the footsteps and trying to clear her eyes. However, the moment she got free of the dust cloud, Cinderblock leapt over her so he was in front, trapping her between two large clouds of dust.

"Terra! Don't use your eyes! Use your feet!"

"What?!"

"Use Toph's Seismic Sense!" Ventus clarified. "Predict Cinderblock's movement without your eyes, and then counter at the last second so he can't dodge!"

"That isn't as easy as it sounds!" the blond cried as she continued to raise crude pillars of earth, Cinderblock angrily tearing each of them down, each only a momentary distraction from the beast's true objective.

"It doesn't matter if it's easy or not! I believe in you!"

"You… believe in me?" Terra asked as she fumbled around through the dust.

"Yes!" he asserted. "Believe! Eliminate all doubt! Do not fear! Clear all anxiety! Whomever your opponent it, it's not that you _can_ win, you've ALREADY WON!"

"I've… already won…?" Terra asked, his words washing across her mind. She had felt this feeling once before, when Slade was in her ear… in her mind… But while Slade's words were commands, his presence like iced water rushing across her skin, this… This feeling was like a warm hug, with the hand of a trusted friend stroking her hair, her chin being lifted up as she-

"BELIEVE! THE RESULT WILL NOT ALTER!" he roared, the blond's heartbeat hammering in her chest. "THE UNWAVERING "RHYTHM OF VICTORY"! THE "IMAGE OF WINNING" _ITSELF_ WILL BECOME YOUR POWER!" By this point, Cinderblock had grown tired of the white-haired teen's prattling and made to turn around. "MAKE THAT IMAGE A REALITY!"

"Make that image… a reality…" Terra muttered to herself, her arms once raised to her eyes now falling to her sides. "Yes… Yes…! I BELIEVE!" she shouted, the golden glow once more enveloping her feet. Stomping it down onto the ground, the world around her became crystal clear, and Cinderblock's movements which had yet to be made became clear as day.

Sweeping her foot across the ground in a full circle, the ground at Cinderblock's immediate footfall suddenly shifted, turning him completely around while the momentum made him fall. The blond raising her hands up, a large block of earth rose where Cinderblock was going to land, the concrete monster striking its head against the edge like a person hitting their head on a table. The monster thoroughly concussed, a large crack running up the back of its head and down its face, Cinderblock grew still; cold, but still alive.

Sensing that her opponent was no longer capable of getting up, the blond then felt a warm wind washing over her. Raising her hands up to rub her eyes, seeing Cinderblock's defeat and Ventus' thumbs-up in living, breathing color, the blond's heart began to swell before a large grin plastered itself across her face, her eyes crinkled shut and the corners of her lips raised up to her eyes.

"I did it! YAHOOO!" the blond cheered as she leapt up, throwing her arms above her head in victory, a beautific sound carried on the wind, warming the hearts of those that heard it.

"Yeah! I knew you could do it!" Ventus said pumping his fist. "Now… Could you _please_ get me out of here? I think I've got a _rock_ up my butt."

"Right! Sorry!" Terra cried as she scrambled over to him, the mood now somber as she tried to extricate him from his rocky prison.

 _ ***TEEN TITANS***_

 **Author's Notes:  
It was never really explained how Ternion was divided back into Cinderblock, Plasmus, and Overload, only that it somehow happened sometime before the end of the Teen Titans series (obviously). For that reason, I decided to make a pseudo-McGuffin in form of the "Chimeric Destabilizer" and actually **_**have**_ **the separation happen instead of a hand-wave.**

 **As for Vent and Terra dressing up like Aang and Toph, it was just something I couldn't help but want to type out. That and it was kind of a follow up of Beast Boy's Avatar-related comment regarding Vent and Terra/Aang and Toph. That bit about Terra getting dirt in her eyes and having to rely on her feet to see was just something I thought would be a good exercise for her. As for the SPEECH that he gave at the end, that too is a reference to an** _ **ultimate**_ **technique, and I challenge my longtime readers to figure out what that is.**

 **P.S.  
In case the AN at the top was ignored, I've installed some Patron-Only material on my Patr(e)on page, so if you want a sneak preview for the **_**next**_ **exciting chapter to tide you over until the whole of it is done, there's a link in my Profile that'll take you to where you need to go. There's also an excerpt for the next chapter of** **Giant-Slayer** **available if you're also fans of my RWBY story, where you might see a certain familiar face. I'll also try to put out an excerpt from Young Justice: The Hunter's next chapter if anyone reading this story is also reading that one.  
**

 **Until next time.**


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